Abstract: This experiment was conducted to determine the effects of the raffinose on growth performance, blood biochemical indexes and immunity function in mice. Sixty KM mice, female and male in half, were randomly assigned into three groups for a 30 days study, which were fed basal diets, basal diets supplemented with 0.1% raffinose and basal diets supplemented with 0.3% raffinose, respectively. At the end of the trial, growth performance, blood biochemical indexes, blood IgA, IgG and IgM contents and mitogen-induced splenocyte proliferation were determined. The results showed that there were no significant differences in feed intake, F/G and weight gains of mice among T2 group, T1 group and control group（P>0.05）; The levels of serum cholesterol（CHO）in T1 and T2 groups were significantly lower than those in control group（P<0.05）, while there were no significant differences in contents of alanine aminotransferase（ALT）, aspartate aminotransferase（AST）, triglyceride（TG）, urea（URE）and creatinine（CRE）contents of mice among C group, T1 group and T2 group（P>0.05）. There were no significant differences in serum IgG, IgA and IgM levels of mice among control group, T1 group and T2 group（P>0.05）, mitogen-induced splenocyte proliferation in T2 group was significantly different from that in control group（P<0.05）. The results indicated that raffinose had no effect on growth performance in mice. Raffinose supplementation could decrease serum cholesterol content in mice, and the effects of 0.3% raffinose supplemention is better than 0.1% raffinose supplemention. The addition of 0.3% raffinose had significant effect on mitogen-induced splenocyte proliferation, indicating that raffinose could improve the immunity in mice.

Key words: raffinose, KM mice, growth performance, blood biochemical index, immunoglobulin, mitogen-induced splenocyte proliferation