Probiotics as a help in children suffering from malnutrition and diarrhoea

Abstract

Malnutrition is associated with a significant impairment of cell-mediated immunity, phagocyte function, immunoglobulin A concentrations and cytokine production. This situation -which is unfortunately very frequent in infants and children from developing countries -leads to a high risk of infection, and often to episodes of diarrhoea, hence aggravating the nutritional status. Fermented milks are known to exert a beneficial influence on the host's health. They act by modulating gut microflora, regulating any alteration of gut mucosa and stimulating immune response. A number of studies have shown that probiotics shorten the duration of diarrhoea and prevent recurrence of other episodes. Furthermore, probiotics can prevent diarrhoea from infection in infants with malnutrition. In addition, it has been shown that cytokines could be used as biological markers of both impaired immune system and the immune stimulation of probiotics. The aim of this review is to update the effect of fermented milks in situations of malnutrition and diarrhoea as a consequence of infection as well as the role of cytokines produced by fermented milks in these deficient conditions.

Probiotics and Natural Defense Function of the Host

“…Improvement of nutritional status could play a key role in regulating infections by revitalizing the immune system and organs. In infants, it has been shown that probiotics can be a potential means for recovery from malnutrition by reducing diarrhea through normalizing intestinal microflora (54). In our studies on the elderly, there were few cases of diarrhea and there was no difference in its incidence between the test and control groups, suggesting that the improvement of nutritional status found in the elderly subjects fed probiotics was not associated with diarrhea.…”

The art of targeting gut microbiota for tackling human obesity

“…Supplementation with probiotics has been suggested as a therapy for inducing weight gain in subjects suffering from severe acute malnutrition (Solis et al 2002;Kerac et al 2009;Angelakis et al 2013). Furthermore, Raoult suggests to be cautious with the consumption of probiotics previously used as growth promoters in the animal food industry and that there is a need to fully study such products in order to confirm how safe they are for human use (Raoult 2009).…”

Probiotics protect the intestinal wall of morphological changes caused by malnutrition

“…Malnutrition remains one of the most devastating problems worldwide, particularly in developing countries (Solis et al 2002). In addition to the social causes that contribute to its prevalence, malnutrition can be a consequence of ageing and can also occur in hospitalised patients (Grover and Ee 2009).…”

“…Therefore, strategies to correct or reduce the damage caused by malnutrition must be investigated. Studies using probiotics have been performed for this purpose (Solis et al 2002, Cano et al 2002, Cano and Perdigón 2003, Dock et al 2004a, b, Dock-Nascimento et al 2007, Lima et al 2012. Probiotics are live microorganisms that when administered in appropriate amounts, are beneficial to the health of the host's organism (O'Sullivan and O'Morain 2000).…”