Probiotic cheese containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 and Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM® modifies subpopulations of fecal lactobacilli and Clostridium difficile in the elderly - PubMed (original) (raw)

Randomized Controlled Trial

Probiotic cheese containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 and Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM® modifies subpopulations of fecal lactobacilli and Clostridium difficile in the elderly

Sampo J Lahtinen et al. Age (Dordr). 2012 Feb.

Abstract

Aging is associated with alterations in the intestinal microbiota and with immunosenescence. Probiotics have the potential to modify a selected part of the intestinal microbiota as well as improve immune functions and may, therefore, be particularly beneficial to elderly consumers. In this randomized, controlled cross-over clinical trial, we assessed the effects of a probiotic cheese containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 and Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM on the intestinal microbiota and fecal immune markers of 31 elderly volunteers and compared these effects with the administration of the same cheese without probiotics. The probiotic cheese was found to increase the number of L. rhamnosus and L. acidophilus NCFM in the feces, suggesting the survival of the strains during the gastrointestinal transit. Importantly, probiotic cheese administration was associated with a trend towards lower counts of Clostridium difficile in the elderly, as compared with the run-in period with the plain cheese. The effect was statistically significant in the subpopulation of the elderly who harbored C. difficile at the start of the study. The probiotic cheese was not found to significantly alter the levels of the major microbial groups, suggesting that the microbial changes conferred by the probiotic cheese were limited to specific bacterial groups. Despite that the administration of the probiotic cheese to the study population has earlier been shown to significantly improve the innate immunity of the elders, we did not observe measurable changes in the fecal immune IgA concentrations. No increase in fecal calprotectin and β-defensin concentrations suggests that the probiotic treatment did not affect intestinal inflammatory markers. In conclusion, the administration of probiotic cheese containing L. rhamnosus HN001 and L. acidophilus NCFM, was associated with specific changes in the intestinal microbiota, mainly affecting specific subpopulations of intestinal lactobacilli and C. difficile, but did not have significant effects on the major microbial groups or the fecal immune markers.

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Figures

Fig. 1

Fig. 1

Fecal levels of L. rhamnosus (a) and L. acidophilus NCFM (b) of the elderly volunteers after the run-in, the treatment, and the wash-out periods, as measured by quantitative PCR. The top and the bottom of the box represent upper and lower quartiles, respectively, and the band within the box is the median. The whiskers indicate the minimum and the maximum, and the average of the data is marked with “_plus sign_”

Fig. 2

Fig. 2

Fecal levels of C. difficile in all volunteers (a) and in volunteers who were positive for this species at the beginning of the study (b) after the run-in, the treatment, and the wash-out periods, as measured by quantitative PCR. The top and the bottom of the box represent upper and lower quartiles, respectively, and the band within the box is the median. The whiskers indicate the minimum and the maximum, and the average of the data is marked with “_plus sign_”

Fig. 3

Fig. 3

Fecal levels of clostridial cluster XIV (a), F. prausnitzii (b) and sulfate reducers (c) in the elderly volunteers after the run-in, the treatment, and the wash-out periods, as measured by quantitative PCR. The top and the bottom of the box represent upper and lower quartiles, respectively, and the band within the box is the median. The whiskers indicate the minimum and the maximum, and the average of the data is marked with “_plus sign_”

Fig. 4

Fig. 4

Levels (mean with SEM) of the Bifidobacterium genus, the Bacteroides–Prevotella group, the Lactobacillus_–_Enterococcus group, the C. histolyticum group, A. _muciniphila_-like bacteria and the total bacteria analyzed with fluorescent in situ hybridization and flow cytometry after the run-in (RI), the treatment (T), and the wash-out (W) phases. The levels of these groups were not significantly changed during the intervention and follow-up phases apart from small decrease in Lactobacillus_–_Enterococcus group between the run-in and the intervention phases

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