Table 2.

Effects of cadmium exposure on immune cells under experimental conditions in vivo.

Immune system	Immune cell	Animal	Cd dose	Exposure duration	Cellular effects	Reference
Innate immunity	Macrophages	Male Japanese quail	50 ppm; 100 ppm; 150 ppm	4 weeks	Cytokine expression (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α) and phagocytosis activity was reduced	(72)
		WT C57BL6 mice	100 ng/kg	7 d	Cd mediates the persistence of classically activated lung macrophages to exacerbate lung injury	(61)
		Channa punctatus Bloch	1.96 mg/L	7 d	Cd-induced oxystress triggers apoptosis via both mitochondrial and death receptor pathways	(73)
		Channa punctatus Bloch	1.96 mg/L	7 d	The decreased phagocytosis, intracellular killing, and cell adhesion were significantly reduced	(74)
		Male Balb/c mice	15 ppm	2 months	Cd exposure altered the redox balance, leading to excessive production of reactive oxygen species that overwhelmed the antioxidant defenses	(43)
	Neutrophils	Male Dark Agouti rats	5 ppm;50 ppm	1 month	Cd promotes neutrophil proliferation	(75)
	Natural killer (NK) cells	Male Dark Agouti rats	5 ppm;50 ppm	1 month	The number of NK cells in the spleens of rats decreased	(75)
		male C57BL/6 mice	50 ppm	3 weeks	Cd-treated mice had significantly lower Nk cell activity	(76)
		Wistar female rats	200 ppm; 400 ppm	170 d	Cd induces both inhibitory and stimulatory effects on rat NK cell number and cytotoxic activity	(77)
	Dendritic cells (DCs)	Male Swiss Albino mice	2.5 mg/kg; 5 mg/kg; 7.5 mg/kg; 10 mg/kg; 15 mg/kg	4 weeks	Cd affects DCs maturation and function	(6)
Adaptive immunity	T-lymphocyte (T-cells)	C57Bl/6 mice	10 ppm	7 weeks	CD8+CD223+ T-cells were markedly decreased	(35)
		Male Sprague Dawley rats	35 ppm	10 weeks	Cadmium exposure also significantly increased the production of IFN-γ, and IL-10, and may affect multiple T cell subsets.	(78)
		Male Sprague- Dawley rats	5 ppm; 10 ppm; 25 ppm; 50 ppm; 100 ppm	1 month	Cd can cause changes in CD4+ and CD8+ cells numbers	(25)
		Male Dark Agouti rats	1 mg Cd/kg	30 d	Differential effects on proinflammatory T-cell derived cytokines were observed (decreases of IFN-γ gene expression and ConA-stimulated production	(75)
	B-lymphocyte (B-cells)	Male Sprague- Dawley rats	5 ppm; 10 ppm; 25 ppm; 50 ppm; 100 ppm	1 month	Low concentrations of Cd (5 ppm and 10 ppm) reduced the number of B-cells, while high concentrations of Cd (25 ppm, 50 ppm, and 100 ppm) increased the number of B-cells	(25)
		Male ICR mice	0.5 mg Cd/kg; 1 mg Cd/kg	5 d	The decrease of blood B lymphocytes is accompanied by the increase in the number of splenic B lymphocytes	(79)
		Female mice	5 µg/mL; 10 µg/mL; 50 µg/mL	4 weeks	Dose-dependent enhancement of B lymphocyte activity and Cd concentration	(28)