BackgroundProbiotic microorganisms favorably alter the intestinal microflora balance, promote intestinal integrity and mobility, inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria and increase resistance to infection. Probiotics are increasingly used in nutraceuticals, functional foods or in microbial interference treatment. However, the effectiveness of probiotic organism is considered to be population-specific due to variation in gut microflora, food habits and specific host-microbial interactions. Most of the probiotic strains available in the market are of western or European origin, and a strong need for exploring new indigenous probiotic organisms is felt.Methods and FindingsAn indigenous isolate Lp9 identified as Lactobacillus plantarum by molecular-typing methods was studied extensively for its functional and probiotic attributes, viz., acid and bile salt tolerance, cell surface hydrophobicity, autoaggregation and Caco-2 cell-binding as well as antibacterial and antioxidative activities. Lp9 isolate could survive 2 h incubation at pH 1.5–2.0 and toxicity of 1.5–2.0% oxgall bile. Lp9 could deconjugate major bile salts like glycocholate and deoxytaurocholate, indicating its potential to cause hypocholesterolemia. The isolate exhibited cell-surface hydrophobicity of ∼37% and autoaggregation of ∼31%. Presence of putative probiotic marker genes like mucus-binding protein (mub), fibronectin-binding protein (fbp) and bile salt hydrolase (bsh) were confirmed by PCR. Presence of these genes suggested the possibility of specific interaction and colonization potential of Lp9 isolate in the gut, which was also suggested by a good adhesion ratio of 7.4±1.3% with Caco-2 cell line. The isolate demonstrated higher free radical scavenging activity than standard probiotics L. johnsonii LA1 and L. acidophilus LA7. Lp9 also exhibited antibacterial activity against E. coli, L. monocytogenes, S. typhi, S. aureus and B. cereus.ConclusionThe indigenous Lactobacillus plantarum Lp9 exhibited high resistance against low pH and bile and possessed antibacterial, antioxidative and cholesterol lowering properties with a potential for exploitation in the development of indigenous functional food or nutraceuticals.

Native probiotic strains MTCC 5690 and MTCC 5689 appear to have potential against insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes with mechanistic, multiple tissue-specific mode of actions.

Diabetes mellitus is a looming epidemic worldwide, affecting almost all major sections of society, creating burdens on global health and economy. A large number of studies have identified a series of multiple risk factors such as genetic predisposition, epigenetic changes, unhealthy lifestyle, and altered gut microbiota that cause increased adiposity, β-cell dysfunction, hyperglycemia, hypercholesterolemia, adiposity, dyslipidaemia, metabolic endotoxemia, systemic inflammation, intestinal permeability (leaky gut), defective secretion of incretins and oxidative stress associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Recent studies have proposed multifactorial interventions including dietary manipulation in the management of T2D. The same interventions have also been recommended by many national and international diabetes associations. These studies are aimed at deciphering the gut microbial influence on health and disease. Interestingly, results from several genomic, metagenomic and metabolomic studies have provided substantial information to target gut microbiota by dietary interventions for the management of T2D. Probiotics particularly lactobacilli and bifidobacteria have recently emerged as the prospective biotherapeutics with proven efficacy demonstrated in various in vitro and in vivo animal models adequately supported with their established multifunctional roles and mechanism of action for the prevention and disease treatment. The dietary interventions in conjunction with probiotics - a novel multifactorial strategy to abrogate progression and development of diabetes - hold considerable promise through improving the altered gut microbial composition and by targeting all the possible risk factors. This review will highlight the new developments in probiotic interventions and future prospects for exploring probiotic therapy in the prevention and control of lifestyle diseases like T2D.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the anti-hypercholesterolaemic effects of two putative probiotic bile salt hydrolase (Bsh)-producing Lactobacillus plantarum strains, i.e. Lp91 and Lp21, in rats. L. plantarum Lp91 exhibited excellent tolerance to low pH and high bile salt concentrations as well as showed potential Bsh activity, cholesterol assimilation and cholesterol co-precipitation ability along with L. plantarum Lp21 and NCDO82 strains. Furthermore, the potential effect of L. plantarum Lp91 on plasma cholesterol level was evaluated in Sprague -Dawley rats. Five treatment groups of rats (n 6) were fed experimental diets: normal diet, hypercholesterolaemic diet (HD), HD plus L. plantarum Lp91 (HD91) at $ 1·0 £ 10 8 colony-forming units (cfu)/g, HD plus microencapsulated L. plantarum Lp91 (HDCap91) at $ 1·0 £ 10 8 cfu/g and HD plus L. plantarum Lp21 (HD21) at $ 1·0 £ 10 8 cfu/g for 3 weeks. Feed intake and feed efficiency differed significantly among the five groups. After 21 d of dietary treatment, comparative analysis revealed 23·26, 15·71 and 15·01 % reduction in total cholesterol, 21·09, 18·77 and 18·17 % reduction in TAG, 38·13, 23·22 and 21·42 % reduction in LDL-cholesterol, and the corresponding HDL-cholesterol values increased at the rate of 18·94, 10·30 and 7·78 % in treated groups HD91, HDCap91 and HD21, respectively. Faecal excretion of cholic acid and faecal lactobacilli counts were significantly higher in the probiotic treatment groups than in the control groups. In conclusion, these results suggest that the indigenous L. plantarum Lp91 strain has the potential to be explored as a probiotic in the management of hypercholesterolaemia.Key words: Lactobacillus plantarum: Microencapsulation: Bile salt hydrolase: Plasma lipids An elevated serum cholesterol level is considered to be one of the major risk factors associated with atherosclerosis and CHD (1,2) -the major cause of morbidity and mortality around the world (3,4) . The WHO predicts that by the year 2020, up to 40 % of all deaths will be related to CVD. Although drug-based therapy (3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors or drugs) is currently being used to treat this condition (5) , it is often suboptimal, expensive and suffers from unwanted side effects (6 -8) .Another natural cost-effective and safe alternative approach recently being explored to manage cholesterolrelated problems is based on probiotic intervention. Probiotics particularly belonging to the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium as biotherapeutics have been investigated for reducing the level of cholesterol in the serum by virtue of bile salt hydrolase (Bsh) activity through direct impact on host bile salt metabolism (9 -12) . Bsh-producing lactobacilli have the selective advantage of surviving and colonising the lower small intestine where the enterohepatic cycle takes place and, therefore, Bsh activity could be considered as one of the important colonisation factors (13) . Bile salts are secreted as bile into the duodenum in the...

Calf rennet, which consists of over 90% chymosin, is commonly used in cheese industries for the curdling of milk. Various animal, plant and microbial sources have been exploited as possible alternatives to calf rennet. The coagulating properties of the enzymatic preparations (coagulants) from these sources differ in terms of their physicochemical factors. The cheese industry has always sought out novel and stable enzyme sources, and recombinant chymosin has been found to be an effective alternative since it possesses several advantages over plant and microbial milk-clotting enzymes. This paper reviews the use of various milk coagulants, especially animal coagulants, for cheese making. Advancements in genetic and protein engineering to produce recombinant chymosin are discussed in addition to evaluating its identity to the rennet available from natural sources.