Immunological and Trophical Effects of <i>Saccharomyces</i><i>boulardii</i> on the Small Intestine in Healthy Human Volunteers

Abstract

Saccharomyces boulardii (S.b.) is used for the prevention and treatment of diarrhea of different etiologies. We prospectively investigated the effects of S.b. on lymphocytes and duodenal mucosa. Before and after oral administration of S.b. for 3 weeks, circulating and intestinal lymphocytes were isolated and characterized by flow cytometry. Trophic effects on duodenal mucosa were investigated by morphometry and determination of brush border enzyme activity. Results were compared intraindividually before and after S.b. In intestinal lymphocytes no phenotypic changes were observed. CD4+ cells of the peripheral blood had a significantly increased expression of CD25 (p < 0.02). None of twelve volunteers had an increase in villous surface area (n.s.). Immunoglobulin A content in small intestine secretion was unaltered. An increase in brush border enzyme activity of lactase, α-glucosidase, and alkaline phosphatase was observed (p < 0.01). Our findings indicate that S.b. has a positive effect on the maturation of enterocytes and only a minor influence on lymphocytes.

Effects of Enterococcus faecium and Bacillus cereus var. toyoi on the morphology of the intestinal mucous membrane in piglets

“…The benefit of probiotics on the host's intestinal tract is well established (Bocourt et al, 2004;Gibson, 2004;Huang et al, 2004;Marteau et al, 2004), however our knowledge about their mode of action and their influence on the morphology of the intestinal tract is very limited (Jahn, et al, 1996;Görke, 2000;Baum et al, 2002). To date, it is established that the composition of animal feed might influence the structure of the intestinal mucous membrane (Tuch & Amtsberg, 1973;Klein & Schmidts, 1997;Langhout et al, 1999;Wiese et al, 2003).…”

Screening of yeasts as probiotic based on capacities to colonize the gastrointestinal tract and to protect against enteropathogen challenge in mice

“…It was demonstrated that this yeast modulates the immune system (Buts et al, 1990;Caetano et al, 1986;Rodrigues et al, 2000), degrades C. difficile toxins A and B and their respective receptors on colonic mucosa (Castagliuolo et al, 1996(Castagliuolo et al, , 1999Pothoulakis et al, 1993;Qamar et al, 2001), inhibits cholera toxin action (Brandão et al, 1998;Czerucka and Rampal, 1999;Czerucka et al, 1989Czerucka et al, , 1994Neves et al, 2002), modulates the transduction pathway induced by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (Czerucka et al, 2000), stimulates digestive enzymatic activities (Buts et al, 1986;Jahn et al, 1996) and fixes some enterobacteriaceae on its surface (Gedek, 1999).…”

Saccharomyces boulardiieffects on gastrointestinal diseases

“…No phenotypic changes were observed in intestinal lymphocytes. However, CD4+ T cells of the peripheral blood had a significant increased expression of CD25 (P < 0.02) (Jahn et al, 1996). Since it has been shown that CD4+ CD25+ T cells can display regulatory functions (Sakaguchi et al, 1995;Sakaguchi et al, 2007), further studies should be performed to assess the effect of S. boulardii in the stimulation of regulatory T cell population and to investigate a possible link between the induction of a regulatory immune response and the decrease of inflammation.…”

“…More efficient clearance was correlated with earlier production of IFN-γ and IL-12 which are involved in the T-helper 1 response (Rodrigues et al, 2000). A further study in healthy human volunteers investigated the effect of S. boulardii on lymphocyte phenotype (Jahn et al, 1996). Results were compared before and after the yeast treatment.…”