Polysaccharide compounds (PCs), which composed of different kinds of polysaccharides always isolated from different kinds of traditional Chinese medicine, are now attracting more and more attentions due to their strong immunomodulatory activities beyond the corresponding one-component polysaccharides. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that PCs-1 and PCs-2 had strong immunomodulatory effects on macrophages both in in vitro and in vivo models by atomic force microscopy (AFM). By high resolution AFM imaging, PCs-1 and PCs-2 were found to inhibit LPS induced cell surface particle size and roughness increase in RAW264.7 macrophages, demonstrating the anti-inflammatory effects of PCs-1 and PCs-2 on macrophages. PCs-1 and PCs-2 were also proved to increase the particle size and roughness of resting RAW264.7 macrophages, which suggested that PCs could activate resting RAW264.7 macrophages. And additionally, PCs-1 and PCs-2 were also found to reverse the surface particle size and roughness decrease of peritoneal macrophages isolated from cyclophosphamide induced immunosuppressive mice, suggesting the activation effects of PCs-1 and PCs-2 on immunosuppressive macrophages. These results further enhanced our understanding of macrophage activations by direct imaging of cell surface ultrastructure and also highlighted AFM as a novel nanotool for macrophage detections. And most importantly, these results also indicated the outstanding immunomodulatory effects of PCs on macrophages, which therefore suggested that PCs could be served as a kind of novel immunomodulatory agents that would benefit human health. SCANNING 38:792-801, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

中文翻译：

---

高分辨率 AFM 揭示多糖化合物在巨噬细胞中的免疫调节作用

多糖化合物（PCs）由不同种类的多糖组成，多糖总是从不同种类的中药中分离出来，由于其比相应的单组分多糖具有更强的免疫调节活性，现在越来越受到人们的关注。在这项研究中，我们首次通过原子力显微镜 (AFM) 在体外和体内模型中证明了 PCs-1 和 PCs-2 对巨噬细胞具有很强的免疫调节作用。通过高分辨率 AFM 成像，发现 PCs-1 和 PCs-2 抑制 LPS 诱导的 RAW264.7 巨噬细胞的细胞表面粒径和粗糙度增加，证明了 PCs-1 和 PCs-2 对巨噬细胞的抗炎作用。PCs-1 和 PCs-2 也被证明可以增加静止 RAW264.7 巨噬细胞的粒径和粗糙度，这表明 PC 可以激活静止的 RAW264.7 巨噬细胞。此外，还发现 PCs-1 和 PCs-2 可以逆转从环磷酰胺诱导的免疫抑制小鼠中分离的腹腔巨噬细胞的表面粒径和粗糙度降低，表明 PCs-1 和 PCs-2 对免疫抑制巨噬细胞具有活化作用。这些结果通过细胞表面超微结构的直接成像进一步增强了我们对巨噬细胞活化的理解，并且还强调了 AFM 作为一种用于巨噬细胞检测的新型纳米工具。最重要的是，这些结果还表明 PCs 对巨噬细胞具有显着的免疫调节作用，因此表明 PCs 可以作为一种有益于人类健康的新型免疫调节剂。扫描 38:792-801, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.