title: The effect of fermented milk on interferon production in malnourished children and in anorexia nervosa patients undergoing nutritional care.
abstract: For several years cytokine production has been associated with infections but it was not suspected that some types of food could also induce cytokines, even in a state of non-infection. Lactic bacteria can induce interferon (IFN) production in human healthy subjects, thus, a better protection against infections would be expected. Therefore, we planned to evaluate the effect of two diets including yoghurt or milk on IFN-gamma production during nutritional recovery in two different situations of malnutrition: (1) children with diarrhoea; and (2) patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). Both the diet including yoghurt of that including milk seemed to increase IFN-gamma production at the end of nutritional recovery in the malnourished children with diarrhoea. The significance of interferon production and the lymphocyte subset increase should be explored to know if a better resistance against pathogens is related to them. Regulation of intestinal absorption and moderate stimulation of interferon production make the yoghurt-based diet a good choice in the nutritional care of children. In the same way, an increase in the IFN-gamma production was observed in AN patients consuming yoghurt. This increase of IFN-gamma production could be considered a biological marker to detect the effect of probiotics on the immune response, especially in the improvement of a deficient nutritional status.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Nutrición y Bromatología, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Solis
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nova
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samartín
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mouane
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lemtouni
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Belaoui
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marcos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000097:blood / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000276:immunology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005285:Fermentation / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D008892:Milk / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D009018:Morocco; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000276:immunology*; D010835:Phytohemagglutinins / Q000276:immunology; D013030:Spain; D015014:Yogurt / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D010835:Phytohemagglutinins; D007371:Interferon-gamma