The effect of melatonin on the antibody production and leukocyte migration in BALB/c line mouse

Melatonin – is a hormone produced by the pineal gland during the dark time. Light during the night suppresses melatonin production. Melatonin is an important biological body regulator: it controls daily and seasonal biorhythms, glucose metabolism, gonadal activity, cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract and the activity of the immune system There is a lot of scientific information about the immunoregulative properties of melatonin. Melatonin modulates the development of some organs of the immune system, cell differentiation, immune response and cytokine production. The imunomodulatory activity of melatonin is usually determined by the following experimental models: surgical pinealectomy, in vivo treatment with melatonin or in vitro treatment of the immune cells with melatonin. However, during the experiments while keeping animals under constant light conditions, melatonin production was rarely naturally inhibited. For the experiments of this study, the method of constant lighting in the mouse model was applied. Our aim was to artificially evoke shift work conditions in order to find out how the deficiency of melatonin production influences the immune system of the shift workers. The results obtained showed that keeping mouse under constant lighting conditions the homeostasis of the immune system (antibody production, leukocyte and granulocyte migration) is disrupted. Therefore, shift work and its influence on the immune system could be considered as a factor for possible health disorders