Processing may destroy existing epitopes on a protein or may generate new ones (neoallergen formation) as a result of change in protein conformation. More often, protein denaturation and/or modification to inactivate epitopes may be a more practical choice to reduce or eliminate food allergens after food processing (Sathe et al., 2005). Through gamma irradiation, we observed relevant functional learn more and structural changes in a dose range above 10 kGy. Thus, we decided to investigate the anti-nutritive

effects of irradiated WGA compared to non-irradiated samples. To study in depth the effect of irradiation on food allergenicity, we analysed weight loss, plasma levels of cytokines and leucocytes as well as the histological profile of the gut of animals sensitised and subjected to oral challenge with WGA for 7 days. All results are summarised in Table 1. A significant (p < 0.05) weight loss of animals sensitised and given irradiated WGA was observed Z-VAD-FMK when compared with the control group challenged with native WGA. Although different, we note a greater weight loss for animals treated with WGA irradiated at 1 kGy. When blood leucocytes were determined ( Table 1), we found increases of leucocytes and lymphocytes in mice treated with irradiated WGA at 1 kGy, being significantly different (p < 0.05) from the native-treated and untreated groups. The profile of cytokines

revealed an allergic inflammatory response. Animals challenged with native WGA showed a significant (p < 0.05) increase of eotaxin, IL-4 and IL-5, when compared to the control group. The animals treated with irradiated WGA, which had weight loss and elevation of leucocytes, showed a significant decrease of IL-5, compared to mice treated with native WGA. The histological profile of the gut of mice fed on diets containing native WGA was appreciably altered after feeding for 5 days. The jejunal Obeticholic Acid mucosa showed moderate lymphocytic infiltrate filling the stroma of microvilli and a

submucosa with numerous eosinophils (Fig. 3c and d) compared to non-immunised animals treated with saline (Fig. 3a and b). Jejunal mucosa of animals treated with irradiated WGA (1 kGy) showed dense lymphocyte infiltration in the stroma of the microvilli and also around the tubular glands or crypts with numerous polymorphonuclear leucocytes (Fig. 4a and b). In irradiated WGA (10 kGy), there was reduced lymphocyte infiltration when compared to previous treatments (Fig. 4c and d). Although we did not observe an association between WGA intake and body weight loss in sensitised animals treated with native WGA, certainly due to the short time of treatment, we can see that the body weight loss and lymphocytic infiltrate in the jejunal mucosa were reduced in the group treated with WGA irradiated at a high dose.