On the fate of ingested   spores

Spinosa, Maria Rita; Braccini, T; Ricca, Ezio; Felice, Maurilio De; Morelli, Lorenzo; Pozzi, Gianni; Oggioni, Marco R.

doi:10.1016/s0923-2508(00)00159-5

Cited by 108 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In the absence of entering the sporulation life cycle, the vegetative cell will either lyse or transit the gastrointestinal tract. Indeed, recent work has shown B. subtilis to be sensitive to bile salts in the gastrointestinal tracts of mice (18). From our results, we can only infer that spore formation is occurring.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 48%

Fate and Dissemination of Bacillus subtilis Spores in a Murine Model

Hoa

Duc

Isticato³

et al. 2001

Appl Environ Microbiol

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147

108

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Bacterial spores are being consumed as probiotics, although little is known about their efficacy or mode of action. As a first step in characterizing spore probiotics, we have studied the persistence and dissemination of Bacillus subtilis spores given orally to mice. Our results have shown that spores do not appear to disseminate across the mucosal surfaces. However, we found that the number of spores excreted in the feces of mice was, in some experiments, larger than the original inoculum. This was an intriguing result and might be explained by germination of a proportion of the spore inoculum in the intestinal tract, followed by limited rounds of cell growth and then sporulation again. This result raises the interesting question of whether it is the spore or the germinated spore that contributes to the probiotic effect of bacterial spores.The gram-positive soil microorganism Bacillus subtilis has been studied extensively, primarily as a model with which to study cell differentiation and for exploitation in the biotechnology industry. While some Bacillus species are pathogenic (e.g., B. anthracis and some B. cereus strains), B. subtilis has, at most, been associated with opportunistic infections of immunocompromised patients (6,11,17). For these reasons, it has received relatively little clinical interest. Bacillus spores, though, are currently available as probiotics and as competitive exclusion agents (CE agents). Probiotics are live bacterial supplements which can enhance the normal intestinal flora, while CE agents are bacteria which can suppress infection and may contain undefined mixtures of more than one bacterial species (7,8,19). Ingestion of significant quantities of spores is thought to restore the normal microbial flora following extensive antibiotic usage or illness (13). How this occurs is unclear but could include competitive exclusion of pathogens, whether by immunostimulation or competition for adhesion sites. Spore probiotics are primarily used by humans as an over-the-counter supplement for oral bacteriotherapy and bacterioprophylaxis of mild gastrointestinal disorders, many of which lead to diarrhea (13). In the livestock and poultry industries, probiotics containing Bacillus spores are used extensively; an example is Biogrow (Provita Eurotech Ltd., County Tyrone, Northern Ireland), which contains a mixture of B. subtilis and B. licheniformis spores. With the recent ban on the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in Denmark, the use of probiotics or CE agents as antibiotic alternatives seems likely to increase.The validity of spores as probiotics or CE agents was recently demonstrated by showing that oral inoculation of 1-dayold chicks with 2.5 ϫ 10 8 B. subtilis spores suppressed all aspects of infection when chicks were challenged with Escherichia coli 078:K80 (12). One dogma regarding the use of spores as probiotics or CE agents is their mode of action, which presumably must be substantially different from that of the other, better known bacterial supplements, such as Lactobacillus spp....

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 48%

Fate and Dissemination of Bacillus subtilis Spores in a Murine Model

Hoa

Duc

Isticato³

et al. 2001

Appl Environ Microbiol

Self Cite

147

108

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“…The B. subtilis wild-type strain used in this study was PY79, a Spo ϩ prototrophic derivative of type strain 168 (44). The commercial probiotics used have been described previously and were Enterogermina (B. clausii) (13,17,39,40), Subtyl (B. cereus var. vietnami) (17), Biosubtyl DL (B. cereus) (17), Biosubtyl NT (B. pumilus) (13), and Bactisubtil (B. cereus) (17).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Bacillus Probiotics Available for Human Use

Duc

Hong

Barbosa

et al. 2004

Appl Environ Microbiol

391

248

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Bacillus species (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus clausii, Bacillus pumilus) carried in five commercial probiotic products consisting of bacterial spores were characterized for potential attributes (colonization, immunostimulation, and antimicrobial activity) that could account for their claimed probiotic properties. Three B. cereus strains were shown to persist in the mouse gastrointestinal tract for up to 18 days postadministration, demonstrating that these organisms have some ability to colonize. Spores of one B. cereus strain were extremely sensitive to simulated gastric conditions and simulated intestinal fluids. Spores of all strains were immunogenic when they were given orally to mice, but the B. pumilus strain was found to generate particularly high anti-spore immunoglobulin G titers. Spores of B. pumilus and of a laboratory strain of B. subtilis were found to induce the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 in a cultured macrophage cell line, and in vivo, spores of B. pumilus and B. subtilis induced the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha and the Th1 cytokine gamma interferon. The B. pumilus strain and one B. cereus strain (B. cereus var. vietnami) were found to produce a bacteriocin-like activity against other Bacillus species. The results that provided evidence of colonization, immunostimulation, and antimicrobial activity support the hypothesis that the organisms have a potential probiotic effect. However, the three B. cereus strains were also found to produce the Hbl and Nhe enterotoxins, which makes them unsafe for human use.

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“…Firstly, the spores are produced in nature and more heat-stable than other non-spore forming bacteria such as Lactobacillus spp, namely, the products can be stored at room temperature in desiccated form with little deleterious effect on viability [6]. Secondly, the spores are capable of surviving at high percentage of bile and low pH of the gastric barrier [4,7], which is not the case for all species of Lactobacillus [8]. Furthermore, the spores have the abilities to survive and germinate in the gut, to form biofilm, and to secrete antimicrobials [4,9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%