Anti-inflammatory and Intestinal Barrier–protective Activities of Commensal Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria in Thoroughbreds: Role of Probiotics in Diarrhea Prevention in Neonatal Thoroughbreds

Abstract

We previously isolated the commensal bacteria lactobacilli and bifidobacteria from the Thoroughbred intestine and prepared the horse probiotics LacFiTM, consisting of Lactobacillus ruminis KK14, L. equi KK 15, L. reuteri KK18, L. johnsonii KK21, and Bifidobacterium boum HU. Here, we found that the five LacFiTM constituent strains remarkably suppressed pro-inflammatory interleukin-17 production in mouse splenocytes stimulated with interleukin-6 and transforming growth factor-β. The protective effects of the probiotic on impaired intestinal barrier function were evaluated in Caco-2 cells treated with tumor necrosis factor-α. Evaluation of transepithelial resistance showed that all the strains exhibited intestinal barrier protective activity, with significant suppression of barrier impairment by L. reuteri KK18. The LacFiTM constituent strains were detected in neonatal LacFiTM-administered Thoroughbred feces using polymerase chain reaction denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and culture methods. These five strains were found to be the predominant lactobacilli and bifidobacteria in the intestinal microbiota of LacFiTM-administered Thoroughbreds. Administration of LacFiTM to neonatal Thoroughbreds decreased diarrhea incidence from 75.9% in the control group (n=29 neonatal Thoroughbreds) to 30.7% in the LacFiTM-administered group (n=101 neonatal Thoroughbreds) immediately after birth to 20 weeks after birth. LacFiTM treatment also prevented diarrhea especially at and around 4 weeks and from 10 to 16 weeks. The duration of diarrhea was also shorter in the probiotics-administered group (7.4 ± 0.8 days) than in the control group (14.0 ± 3.2 days). These results indicate that the LacFiTM probiotics regulates intestinal function and contributes to diarrhea prevention.

Effect of a Probiotic on Prevention of Diarrhea and Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens Shedding in Foals

“…The 1 week of treatment course chosen in previous studies therefore might not be sufficient to see an effect 3, 5, 9. A treatment period of 3 weeks was chosen for this study.…”

The longitudinal effect of a multi‐strain probiotic on the intestinal bacterial microbiota of neonatal foals

“…In equine medicine probiotics have been increasingly studied to prevent and treat disease due to few reported side effects, low cost and ease of administration [10], although clinical data are currently equivocal. Probiotics have been shown to reduce the incidence of diarrhoea in foals [11,12], but other studies have found a higher incidence of diarrhoea requiring veterinary attention in neonatal foals [13,14]. Several studies were unable to show beneficial effects of probiotic administration in prevention or treatment of diarrhoea in adult horses [15][16][17].…”

The effect of hydrolysates of proteins from rice milk on the physiological response of enterocytes and on the adhesion of bacteria from healthy and allergic people – an in vitro study

“…Lactobacilli have been shown to increase tight junction protein expression, consequently restoring intestinal permeability [22]. The fact that the total number of adhering bacteria was not altered by the analysed hydrolysates, nor their profile, may indicate the stability of the intestinal barrier, thus remaining the most abundantly anchored lactic acid bacteria, and that they may potentially exert a beneficial effect by their protective function and metabolic activity [23]. Bacterial adhesion is thought to play a role in the maintenance of the mucus layer by influencing the number and size of mucus secreting Goblet cells [24].…”