Soybeans are widely recognized as a valuable crop, often included as a high-quality protein source in production animal diets. In addition to contributing to the macronutrient composition of the diet, soybeans also contain many minor bioactive components which can influence the health and growth of animals. This review examined the immunomodulatory potential of soy saponins and their specific effects on the inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and intestinal barrier function. Saponins are amphiphilic molecules, a property imparted by their polar carbohydrate chains that attach to a nonpolar aglycone backbone. This structure also complicates their isolation, thus most research investigating soy saponins has been performed in models that only require small amounts of isolated material. Many experiments conducted in vitro or in rodents reported that saponins can reduce damage, particularly in conditions where a challenge was first introduced to stimulate inflammation or oxidative stress. It appears that saponins can exert their anti-inflammatory effects through modulation of the NF-κB pathway, reducing its activation and the release of pro-inflammatory molecules later in the cascade. Furthermore, soy saponins can influence levels of important antioxidative enzymes and reduce the generation of reactive oxygen species, thus attenuating levels of oxidative stress in the model. As these results were obtained from experiments done in vitro or in rodents, they neglect to provide a good representation of how soy saponins may affect some of the greatest consumers of soy-based products, with those being production animals. The work that has been done seems to indicate that soy saponins may exert similar anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects in production animals as those observed in other research models along with immunostimulatory activity that may help boost host defense systems. Overall, there is a dearth of research regarding the effects of soy saponins on species that commonly consume soy products, which begins by developing more effective methods of saponin extraction.

中文翻译：

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日粮大豆皂苷的免疫调节潜力


大豆被广泛认为是一种有价值的作物，通常作为生产动物饲料中的优质蛋白质来源。除了有助于饮食的宏量营养素组成外，大豆还含有许多次要的生物活性成分，这些成分会影响动物的健康和生长。本综述研究了大豆皂苷的免疫调节潜力及其对炎症反应、氧化应激和肠道屏障功能的特定影响。皂苷是两亲性分子，其极性碳水化合物链附着在非极性糖苷配基骨架上，从而赋予了这种特性。这种结构也使它们的分离变得复杂，因此大多数调查大豆皂苷的研究都是在只需要少量分离材料的模型中进行的。在体外或啮齿动物中进行的许多实验报告说，皂苷可以减少损伤，尤其是在首次引入刺激炎症或氧化应激的情况下。皂苷似乎可以通过调节 NF-κB 通路发挥其抗炎作用，减少其活化和级联反应后期促炎分子的释放。此外，大豆皂苷可以影响重要抗氧化酶的水平并减少活性氧的产生，从而减轻模型中的氧化应激水平。由于这些结果是从体外或啮齿动物的实验中获得的，因此它们忽略了大豆皂苷如何影响大豆产品的一些最大消费者，这些消费者是生产动物。 已经完成的工作似乎表明，大豆皂苷可能在生产动物中发挥与其他研究模型中观察到的类似的抗炎和抗氧化作用，以及可能有助于增强宿主防御系统的免疫刺激活性。总体而言，缺乏关于大豆皂苷对通常食用大豆制品的物种影响的研究，这从开发更有效的皂苷提取方法开始。