Effect of Different Foods on Body Condition and Cellular Immunity in Siberian Hamsters

Food quality is one of the most important factors influencing animals’ immunity. In the present study, Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) were used to understand the effect of feeding purple cabbage on body condition and cellular immunity. Male hamsters were randomly assigned to the normal food group (NF, n = 10), normal food plus purple cabbage group (NF + PC, n = 10), and purple cabbage group (PC, n = 10), respectively. The treatment period lasted for 28 days. We found that body mass in the PC group was lower than in the other two groups after 7 days of treatment. The masses of wet carcass, subcutaneous fat, retroperitoneal fat, mesenteric fat, perigonadal fat, and total body fat were the lowest in the PC group among the three groups, while these parameters did not differ between the NF and NF + PC groups. No differences were observed in the wet masses of the thymus and spleen among the three groups. Phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) response, indicative of cellular immunity after 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h of PHA injection, did not differ among the NF, NF + PC, and PC groups, indicating that feeding purple cabbage had no effect on cellular immunity. In summary, feeding purple cabbage decreased body mass and different parts of body fat, but did not influence cellular immunity.