Some lactobacilli strains had beneficial effects on human beings due to their antioxidant activities. In this study lactobacilli strains stored in our laboratory were screened for potential antioxidant activities by investigating their 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activity, oxygen radical absorbance capacity, resistance to H 2 O 2 , and hydroxyl free radical scavenging activity; then the antioxidant activities of the screened strains were evaluated by cellular antioxidant assay and protection for HT-29 cells against H 2 O 2 injury assay. The results showed that Lactobacillus plantarum Y44 could scavenge oxygen free radicals, inhibit the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species without creating obvious cytotoxic effects, and protect HT-29 cells against H 2 O 2 injury evidenced by the significant decrease of the Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax)/B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) ratio and heat shock protein 70 expression, increase of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activities, and decrease of malondialdehyde level of HT-29 cells damaged by H 2 O 2 . It was speculated that L. plantarum Y44 protect HT-29 cells against oxygen radical injury through scavenging reactive oxygen species and activating intracellular antioxidant enzymes. A significant correlation was observed among the results of the hydroxyl radical scavenging assay, protection assay for HT-29 cells against H 2 O 2 injury, and the cellular antioxidant assay. The findings indicated that L. plantarum Y44 could be a probiotic candidate with antioxidant properties and combining several chemical antioxidant methods and antioxidant cellular models could be an effective procedure to screen lactobacilli strains with antioxidant activity.

No abstract

Heat treatment of milk aims to inhibit the growth of microbes, extend the shelf-life of products and improve the quality of the products. Heat treatment also leads to denaturation of whey protein and the formation of whey protein-casein polymer, which has negative effects on milk product. Hence the milk heat treatment conditions should be controlled in milk processing. In this study, the denaturation degree of whey protein and the combination degree of whey protein and casein when undergoing heat treatment were also determined by using the Native-PAGE and SDS-PAGE analysis. The results showed that the denaturation degree of whey protein and the combination degree of whey protein with casein extended with the increase of the heat-treated temperature and time. The effects of the heat-treated temperature and heat-treated time on the denaturation degree of whey protein and on the combination degree of whey protein and casein were well described using the quadratic regression equation. The analysis strategy used in this study reveals an intuitive and effective measure of the denaturation degree of whey protein, and the changes of milk protein under different heat treatment conditions efficiently and accurately in the dairy industry. It can be of great significance for dairy product proteins following processing treatments applied for dairy product manufacturing.

Lactobacillus plantarum-12 can relieve colitis, and the results have some practical value in applications.

In our previous studies, Lactobacillus plantarum Y44 showed antioxidant activity and favorable gastric and intestinal transit tolerance.