Figure 2.

Effects of walnut proteins on pinocytosis of peritoneal macrophages. Peritoneal macrophages were prepared from mice treated with walnut proteins at different doses. A distilled water-treated group was used as the negative control and thymopeptide was used to treat the positive control group. The phagocytosis index was measured using the accumulation of neutral red in cells via a colorimetric assay, which represented the phagocytic activity of the peritoneal macrophages of each protein-treated group. Values are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD). Asterisks represent statistically significant differences; ^∗P < 0.05 and ^∗∗P < 0.01 compared with the control group.