Probiotics and gut health: A special focus on liver diseases

Probiotic bacteria have well-established beneficial effects in the management of diarrhoeal diseases. Newer evidence suggests that probiotics have the potential to reduce the risk of developing inflammatory bowel diseases and intestinal bacterial overgrowth after gut surgery. In liver health, the main benefits of probiotics might occur through preventing the production and/or uptake of lipopolysaccharides in the gut, and therefore reducing levels of low-grade inflammation. Specific immune stimulation by probiotics through processes involving dendritic cells might also be beneficial to the host immunological status and help prevent pathogen translocation. Hepatic fat metabolism also seems to be influenced by the presence of commensal bacteria, and potentially by probiotics; although the mechanisms by which probiotic might act on the liver are still unclear. However, this might be of major importance in the future because low-grade inflammation, hepatic fat infiltration, and hepatitis might become more prevalent as a result of high fat intake and the increased prevalence of obesity. © 2010 Baishideng. All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio

Aflatoxin B1 binding by a mixture of Lactobacillus and Propionibacterium: In vitro versus ex vivo

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a well-known carcinogen and reducing its bioavailability is of great interest for human and animal health. Several probiotic bacteria are able to bind AFB1 in vitro, including Lactobacillus rhamnosus LC-705 and Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii JS. A mixture of these two probiotics is used by the food and feed industry as biopreservative (Bioprofit), making it a promising candidate for future applications. Consequently, this study aims to investigate the in vitro and ex vivo ability of this probiotic mixture to bind AFB1. For in vitro experiments, probiotic mixture was suspended in an AFB1 solution (5 μM), incubated for 1 to 30 min, centrifuged, and AFB1 residues were quantitated in supernatant and pellet. For ex vivo experiments, duodenal loops of chicks were ligated and injected with either AFB1 solution alone or probiotic mixture suspension and AFB1 solution. Lumen content was centrifuged and AFB1 was quantitated in supernatant and pellet. Additionally, AFB1 was extracted from duodenal tissue to calculate tissue uptake. In vitro, 57 to 66% of AFB1 was removed from the solution by the probiotic mixture, but only 38 to 47% could be extracted from the bacterial surface. In ex vivo experiments, only up to 25% of AFB1 was bound by bacteria, and tissue uptake of AFB1 was significantly reduced when probiotic bacteria were present in the duodenal loop. Furthermore, the effect of intestinal mucus on the bacterial binding ability was investigated in vitro and was found to significantly reduce AFB1 binding by the probiotic mixture. However, probiotic mixture could only retard but not prevent AFB1 absorption in duodenal loops. Further work needs to assess the potential of probiotics in different experimental setups. Copyright ©, International Association for Food Protection.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Physicochemical alterations enhance the ability of dairy strains of lactic acid bacteria to remove aflatoxin from contaminated media

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Lactobacillus rhamnosus LC-705, previously shown to effectively bind to aflatoxin B1, were subjected to various chemical and physical treatments to examine the effects of these treatments on the binding affinity of these strains towards aflatoxin B1. Treatment of bacterial pellets of both strains with hydrochloric acid significantly (P < 0.05) enhanced the binding ability when compared to nontreated pellets or pellets treated by other methods. An enhancement of bacterial ability to bind aflatoxin B1 was also observed when the bacterial pellets were subjected to heat treatment by either autoclaving or boiling at 100°C in a water bath, but the impact of these two treatments was not as effective as the acid treatment. Ethanol, UV radiation, sonication, alkaline, or pH treatments either had no effect or reduced the binding ability of the bacteria.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Ability of dairy strains of lactic acid bacteria to bind a common food carcinogen, aflatoxin B1

This study was conducted to examine the ability of selected dairy strains of lactic acid bacteria to remove aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) from liquid media. Both Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG (LBGG) and L. rhamnosus strain LC-705 (LC705) can significantly (P > 0.05) remove AFB1 when compared with that by other strains of either Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria. Removal of AFB1 by LBGG and LC705 was a rapid process with approximately 80% AFB1 removed at 0 hr. Removal of AFB1 by these two strains was both temperature and bacterial concentration dependent.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Fate of the teratogenic and carcinogenic ochratoxin A in human perfused placenta

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the most frequent mycotoxins detected in human blood worldwide. Apart from its well known nephrotoxicity, OTA-induced teratogenicity and carcinogenicity proven in animals are potential effects also in humans. Pregnant women have been exposed to this food contaminant via dietary exposure in a continuous and widespread manner. Although the transplacental transfer of OTA has been demonstrated in laboratory animals and the presence of OTA in human fetal samples has been reported, little is known about the role of human placenta in OTA toxicokinetics. In this study, human perfused placenta was used to reveal the actual placental toxicokinetics of OTA using concentrations found in serum of pregnant women. Moreover, the effect of protein concentration and biological significance of placental transporters on the OTA transfer in human placenta were also determined. Our study is the first to pursue the transfer of OTA through perfused human placenta. The transfer of OTA through term human placenta was barely detectable in all perfusions. Inhibitors of neither ABCG2 nor ABCC2 increased the transport of OTA to fetal circulation in placental perfusion, and thus these transporters apparently do not have biological significance in inhibiting transplacental transfer of OTA. Human albumin has inhibited OTA transfer through a tight monolayer of BeWo b30 cells. Finding from this study clearly contradict the existing epidemiological studies reporting higher OTA levels in fetal than in maternal circulation in vivo. © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Ability of Lactobacillus and Propionibacterium strains to remove aflatoxin B1 from the chicken duodenum

The ability of Lactobacillus rhamnosus strains GG and LC-705 to remove AFB1 from the intestinal luminal liquid medium has been tested in vivo using a chicken intestinal loop technique. In this study, the GG strain of L. rhamnosus decreased AFB1 concentration by 54% in the soluble fraction of the luminal fluid within 1 min. This strain was more efficient in binding AFB1 compared with L. rhamnosus strain LC-705 (P < 0.05) that removed 44% of AFB1 under similar conditions. Accumulation of AFB1 into the intestinal tissue was also determined. There was a 74% reduction in the uptake of AFB1 by the intestinal tissue, in the presence of L. rhamnosus strain GG compared with 63% and 37% in the case of Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. shermanii JS and L. rhamnosus strain LC-705, respectively. The complexes formed in vitro between either L. rhamnosus strain GG or L. rhamnosus strain LC-705 and AFB1 were stable under the luminal conditions for a period of 1 h.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Removal of common Fusarium toxins in vitro by strains of Lactobacillus and Propionibacterium

This study was conducted to examine the ability of selected strains of Lactobacillus and Propionibacterium to remove common Fusarium toxins, trichothecenes, from liquid media. The trichothecenes studied were deoxynivalenol (DON), 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol (3-AcDON), nivalenol (NIV), fusarenon (FX), diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), T-2 toxin (T-2) and HT-2 toxin (HT-2). The Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG (LGG), Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain LC-705 (LC-705) and Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. shermanii JS (PJS) were incubated in PBS buffer containing 20 μg toxin ml-1 for 1 h at 37°C, and after centrifugation the concentration of the toxins was measured in the supernatant fraction. Both viable and heat-killed forms of LGG and PJS were more efficient than LC-705 in removing the toxins from the liquid media. LGG and PJS removed four of the seven tested toxins (the removal varying from 18 to 93%) and LC-705 two toxins (10-64%). Of the toxins, 3-AcDON was not removed by any of the bacteria; HT-2 was removed by the non-viable LGG and also slightly by non-viable LC-705; DAS was removed by all three bacteria tested. Binding is postulated as the possible mechanism of the removal, since no difference was observed between the ability of viable and heat-killed bacteria in removing the trichothecenes, and no degradation products of the toxins were detected by gas chromatography (GC)-mass spectrometry (MS) analysis. It is concluded that significant differences exist in the ability of the bacteria to bind trichothecenes in vitro.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Ability of cheese starter culture strains to bind aflatoxin, a food carcinogen

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Ability of dairy strains of lactic acid bacteria to bind aflatoxin M1 in a food model

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a highly toxic compound found in milk. Its occurrence poses a threat to the health of consumers, especially young children, and leads to economic losses due to contaminated milk. The problem is global but more severe in developing countries. Consequently, there is a great demand for novel strategies to prevent the contamination and adverse effects of AFM1. To develop a safe and practical decontamination method, a preliminary study was carried out with specific lactic acid bacteria strains that were tested for their ability to remove AFM1 from liquid media. All strains, whether viable or heat-killed, could reduce the AFM1 content of a liquid medium. Two most effective strains were also tested using contaminated skim and full cream milk. The results indicate that specific lactic acid bacteria used in dairy products can offer novel means of decontaminating aflatoxin M1 from milk.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Binding of aflatoxin B1 alters the adhesion properties of Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG in a Caco-2 model

Lactic acid bacteria have been previously reported to possess antimycotoxigenic activities both in vitro and in vivo. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of aflatoxin B1 on adhesion capability of Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG using a Caco-2 adhesion model. Removal of aflatoxin B1 by L. rhamnosus strain GG reduced the adhesion capability of this strain from 30% to 5%. It is therefore concluded that aflatoxins may influence the adhesion properties of probiotics able to sequester them, and subsequently these bacteria may reduce the accumulation of aflatoxins in the intestine via increased excretion of an aflatoxin-bacteria complex.link_to_subscribed_fulltex