Predominant genera of fecal microbiota in children with atopic dermatitis are not altered by intake of probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis Bi-07

Abstract

The effect of probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM and Bifidobacterium lactis Bi-07 on the composition of the Lactobacillus group, Bifidobacterium and the total bacterial population in feces from young children with atopic dermatitis was investigated. The study included 50 children randomized to intake of one of the probiotic strain or placebo. Microbial composition was characterized by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, quantitative PCR and, in a subset of subjects, by pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The core population of the Lactobacillus group was identified as Lactobacillus gasseri, Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus oris, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, while the bifidobacterial community included Bifidobacterium adolescentis, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium longum and Bifidobacterium catenulatum. The fecal numbers of L. acidophilus and B. lactis increased significantly after intervention, indicating survival of the ingested bacteria. The levels of Bifidobacterium correlated positively (P=0.03), while the levels of the Lactobacillus group negatively (P=0.01) with improvement of atopic eczema evaluated by the Severity Scoring of Atopic Dermatitis index. This correlation was observed across the whole study cohort and not attributed to the probiotic intake. The main conclusion of the study is that administration of L. acidophilus NCFM and B. lactis Bi-07 does not affect the composition and diversity of the main bacterial populations in feces.

Discordant temporal development of bacterial phyla and the emergence of core in the fecal microbiota of young children

“…The finding is in agreement with several probiotic intervention studies, where limited changes in overall structure of fecal microbiota were observed both in children (Larsen et al, 2011;Nylund et al, 2013) and in adults (Gerritsen et al, 2011;Kim et al, 2013;Lahti et al, 2013). The increased stability of Actinobacteria in the treatment group may have been caused by inulin, which is known to support the growth of bifidobacteria, the main group within the phylum, in the intestine (Veereman, 2007;Salazar et al, 2014).…”

The role of early life nutrition in the establishment of gastrointestinal microbial composition and function

“…In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled intervention, administration of L. acidophilus NCFM or B. lactis Bi-07 to infants with atopic dermatitis for 8 wks did not affect the composition and diversity of the main bacterial populations in feces. 123 Similarly, no effect on the overall microbiota composition was observed when L. reuteri DSM 17938 was administrated to BF colicky infants. 130 These inconsistent results may relate to differences in probiotic strain used, daily doses administered, timing and duration of administration, and the methods applied for microbiota analysis.…”

Gastrointestinal microorganisms in cats and dogs: a brief review

“…This is an interesting observation because probiotics are thought to modulate the intestinal microbiota, including other, unrelated to the ingested microorganisms, bacteria. This modulation effect of probiotics on the intestinal microbiota has also been suggested in humans, as evaluated by culture (Venturi et al 1999) and molecular techniques (Larsen et al 2011), although the results are also controversial. For example, one study showed that the consumption of a synbiotic preparation leads to changes in bacterial populations but no significant differences in fecal chemistry (Worthley et al 2009), while others propose that the intake of a synbiotic food leads to modulation of the gut metabolic activities with a maintenance of gut "biostruc-ture" (Vitali et al 2010).…”

“…The fluorescent chemistries employed for this purpose include DNAbinding dyes and fluorescently-labeled sequence-specific primers or probes. qPCR has been widely used to assess the effect of different treatments on the abundance of the GI microbiota in cats and dogs (Gronvold et al 2010, Garcia-Mazcorro et al 2011) as well as in humans (Malinen et al 2005, Larsen et al 2011. However, bacterial cell numbers cannot directly be estimated from qPCR data in part because the cellular genome content varies with the growth phase of the organisms and bacteria have different number of copies of the 16S rRNA gene (see PCR above).…”