Monitoring of antibiotic-induced alterations in the human intestinal microflora and detection of probiotic strains by use of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism.
Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) was investigated as a tool for monitoring the human intestinal microflora during antibiotic treatment and during ingestion of a probiotic product. Fecal samples from eight healthy volunteers were taken before, during, and after administration of clindamycin. During treatment, four subjects were given a probiotic, and four subjects were given a placebo. Changes in the microbial intestinal community composition and relative abundance of specific microbial populations in each subject were monitored by using viable counts and T-RFLP fingerprints. T-RFLP was also used to monitor specific bacterial populations that were either positively or negatively affected by clindamycin. Some dominant bacterial groups, such as Eubacterium spp., were easily monitored by T-RFLP, while they were hard to recover by cultivation. Furthermore, the two probiotic Lactobacillus strains were easily tracked by T-RFLP and were shown to be the dominant Lactobacillus community members in the intestinal microflora of subjects who received the probiotic.
Jernberg
Cecilia
C
Section for Natural Sciences, Södertörn University College, Huddinge, Sweden.
Sullivan
Asa
A
Edlund
Charlotta
C
Jansson
Janet K
JK
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002981:Clindamycin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D005051:Eubacterium / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007422:Intestines / Q000187:drug effects / Q000382:microbiology*; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D019936:Probiotics
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D002981:Clindamycin