The isolation, characterization and effects of lactobacillus spp. from fresh palm wine was undertaken in this study. The aim of this study was to isolate and investigate the in vivo effects of the isolates on innate and cellular immune system. The result of the phenotypic and genotypic characterizations showed the presence of Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. Tolerans, Lactobacillus paracasei and Lactobacillus yonginensis, which are members of Lactobacillus spp., isolated. The effects of the isolates on innate and cellular immunity were investigated, using two models namely: in vivo leukocytes mobilization rate (LMR) and delayed type hypersensitivity response (DTHR). The different isolates had very significant effect on cellular immunity as represented by their ability to stimulate delayed type hypersensitivity response in treated rats. They caused a percentage increase of 300, 600, 600, 500 and 650 for L. brevis, L. paracasei subsp. Tolerans, L. paracasei, L. yonginensis and positive control respectively when compared with the negative control. Similarly, the various isolates also affected significantly the innate immune system through their marked influence on the total leukocyte count according to the result of the experiment. They were able to produce a percentage increase of 213, 204, 188.6, and 152.5% for L. paracasei, L. yonginensis, L. paracasei subsp. Tolerans and L. brevis respectively; while the positive control produced 83.8% increase when compared with the negative control. The result of this study showed that the four lactobacillus spp. isolated from fresh palm wine significantly affected the innate and cellular component of the immune system positively.

Keywords: Delayed type, Hypersensitivity response, Innate immunity, Cellular immunity, Leukocyte mobilization.