Background – Adhesion and colonization of the mucosal surfaces by probiotics are possible protective mechanisms against pathogens through competition for binding sites and nutrients (2) or immune modulation (1).
Objectives – The objective was to test the abilities to inhibit, to displace and to compete with pathogens in order to screen the most effective adhesive probiotic combination, and to develop methods for new probiotic characterization.
Design – A human intestinal mucus model (2) was used to assess probiotics strains and their combinations. The strains were selected on the basis of their use as a commercial probiotic strains and they have each demonstrated to have beneficial in vivo health effects.
Outcomes – All probiotic strains showed abilities against pathogens adhesion, but the displacement, inhibition and competition were clearly strain- and combination strains- dependent indicating the need of a case-by-case characterization of each probiotic strain and their combinations. The selection of probiotics to inhibit or displace a specific pathogen could be the basis for both product development and future clinical intervention studies on prevention or treatment of dysfunctions.
Conclusion – Our results suggest that different probiotic combinations can be formulated to enhance the inhibition and the displacement percentages to pathogen adhesion to intestinal mucus. New combinations could be useful in inhibition and displacement of pathogen adhesion than a single strain. Further studies are needed to characterize each combination and to understand their role in inhibition mechanisms.
References
1 Salminen S, Bouley C, Boutron-Ruault MC, et al. Br J Nutr 1998; 80 Suppl 1:S147-71.
2 Ouwehand AC, Salminen S, Tolkko S, Roberts P, Ovaska J, Salminen E. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol 2002; 9:184-6.