Three-Month Feeding Integration With Bifidobacterium Strains Prevents Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Healthy Newborns

Abstract

Infantile functional gastrointestinal disorders are common in the first months of life. Their pathogenesis remains unknown although evidences suggest multiple independent causes, including gut microbiota modifications. Feeding type, influencing the composition of intestinal microbiota, could play a significant role in the pathogenesis. Previous studies supported probiotic supplementation success against colics, however mainly Lactobacillus spp. were tested. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness against functional gastrointestinal disorders of a Bifidobacterium breve based probiotic formulation including in the study both breast-fed and bottle-fed subjects. Two hundred and sixty-eight newborns were enrolled within 15 days from birth. One hundred and fifty-five of them effectively entered the study and were randomized in probiotic and placebo group, receiving the formulation for 90 days. The probiotic formulation consists of a 1:1 mixture of 2 strains of B. breve prepared in an oily suspension and administered in a daily dosage of 5 drops containing 108 CFU of each strain. Absolute quantification of selected microbial groups in the faeces was performed using qPCR. Anthropometric data, daily diary minutes of crying, number of regurgitations, vomits and evacuations, and colour and consistency of stools were evaluated before and after treatment. The study confirmed the positive role of breast milk in influencing the counts of target microbial groups, in particular the bifidobacteria community. No adverse events upon probiotic administration were reported, suggesting the safety of the product in this regimen. B. breve counts increased significantly in all administered newborns (p < 0.02). The study demonstrates that a 3 months treatment with B. breve strains in healthy breast-fed newborns helps to prevent functional gastrointestinal disorders, in particular reducing 56% of daily vomit frequency (p < 0.03), decreasing 46.5% of daily evacuation over time (p < 0.03), and improving the stool consistency (type 6 at the Bristol Stool chart instead of type 5) in those at term (p < 0.0001). Moreover, a significant reduction (8.65 vs. 7.98 LogCFU/g of feces, p < 0.03) of B. fragilis in the bottle-fed group receiving the probiotic formulation was observed.

Effects of Linoleic Acid on Gut-Derived Bifidobacterium breve DSM 20213: A Transcriptomic Approach

“…Accordingly, bifidobacteria strains are utilized as probiotics for infant health and well-being [39]. Among the different species of the Bifidobacterium genus, B. breve has been formulated for clinical trials in pediatrics [40][41][42] and used as a supplement in infant formulas [43,44].…”

The Effect of Probiotics on Symptoms, Gut Microbiota and Inflammatory Markers in Infantile Colic: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…Ultimately 16 studies were included [19,[33][34][35][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56], the majority of which (n = 7) were conducted in Italy [19,33,45,46,49,50,54]. Intervention sponsorship was not specified for seven studies [19,45,47,48,50,51,53] and two trials [46,52] were financed by governmental institutions.…”

“…Ultimately 16 studies were included [19,[33][34][35][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56], the majority of which (n = 7) were conducted in Italy [19,33,45,46,49,50,54]. Intervention sponsorship was not specified for seven studies [19,45,47,48,50,51,53] and two trials [46,52] were financed by governmental institutions. There were 14 double-blinded studies [19,34,35,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][54][55][56], one single-blinded [53] and in one review, the blinding was not specified [33].…”

Therapeutic Microbiology: the Role of <em>Bifidobacterium Breve</em> as Food Supplement for the Prevention/Treatment of Pediatric Diseases

“…Preliminary results showed that administration was effective in reducing minutes of daily crying. The clinical trial was then completed (155 infants, 130 breast-and 25 bottle-fed) as described in Aloisio et al [129]; the B. breve mixture was able to prevent gastrointestinal disorders in healthy breast-fed infants, principally by reducing 56% of daily vomit frequency, decreasing 46.5% of daily evacuation over time and improving stool consistency. The strength of this study is the interrelation among a prolonged probiotic treatment, several clinical and anthropometric parameters (e.g.…”

“…Epidemiological data have shown the predisposition of neonates born by caesarean section to develop obesity later in life [130,131]. However, the B. breve supplementation in infants born by caesarean section [129] resulted in a lower catch-up growth in weight, thus allowing the Authors to speculate a protective effect of the probiotic strains against the risk to develop metabolic disturbance later in life. The efficacy of the same B. breve association was also shown in children affected by celiac disease.…”