Manipulating the growth environment through co-culture to enhance stress tolerance and viability of probiotic strains in the gastrointestinal tract.

2023-12-21
Applied and environmental microbiology 89(12)
- Kosuke Oana
- Kensuke Shimizu
- Toshihiko Takada
- Hiroshi Makino
- Mikiko Yamazaki
- Miyuki Katto
- Minoru Ando
- Takashi Kurakawa
- Kenji Oishi

PubMed: 38019024
DOI: 10.1128/aem.01502-23

Study Design

Type: Clinical Trial
Population: human study
Methods: use of co-culture or pH-controlled monoculture, which uses more stringent conditions (lower pH) than normal monoculture to produce probiotic strains that are more resistant to gastrointestinal stress

Rigorous Journal

Importance

The viability of probiotics in the human gastrointestinal tract is important, as some reports indicate that the health benefits of live bacteria are greater than those of dead ones. Therefore, the higher the viability of the probiotic strain, the better it may be. However, probiotic strains lose their viability due to gastrointestinal stress such as gastric acid and bile. This study provides an example of the use of co-culture or pH-controlled monoculture, which uses more stringent conditions (lower pH) than normal monoculture to produce probiotic strains that are more resistant to gastrointestinal stress. In addition, co-cultured beverages showed higher viability of the probiotic strain in the human gastrointestinal tract than monocultured beverages in our human study.

Research Insights

Supplement	Dose	Health Outcome	Effect Type	Effect Size	Source
Lactobacillus gasseri LAC-343	—	Improved Stress Tolerance	Beneficial	Moderate	View source use of co-culture or pH-controlled monoculture, which uses more stringent conditions (lower pH) than normal monoculture to produce probiotic strains that are more resistant to gastrointestinal stress.