title: Oral administration of probiotic bacteria, Lactobacillus casei and Bifidobacterium breve, does not exacerbate neurological symptoms in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
abstract: To evaluate the safety of two probiotic bacterial strains, Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota (LcS) and Bifidobacterium breve strain Yakult (BbY), these probiotics were orally administered to Lewis rats with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the experimental model of human multiple sclerosis. We examined three experimental designs by combining different antigen types and probiotic administration periods: (1) EAE was induced with a homogenate of guinea pig spinal cord as the sensitizing antigen, and LcS was orally administered from one week before this sensitization until the end of the experiment; (2) EAE was induced using guinea pig originated myelin basic protein (MBP) as the sensitizing antigen, and LcS was orally administered from one week before this sensitization to the end of the experiment; (3) EAE was induced using guinea pig MBP as the sensitizing antigen, and the probiotic strains (LcS and BbY) were administered starting in infancy (two weeks old) and continued until the end of the experiment. In experiment 1, oral administration of LcS tended to suppress the development of neurological symptoms. Differences in neurological symptoms between the control group and the administration groups did not reach statistical significance in experiments 2 and 3. These results support the notion that neither LcS nor BbY exacerbates autoimmune disease.
authors.affiliation: Yakult Central Institute for Microbiological Research, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihide
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Ikuo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Masanobu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nanno
authors.forename: Kan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shida
authors.forename: Kazumoto
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shibuya
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsuoka
authors.forename: Masaharu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Onoue
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000818:Animals; D001644:Bifidobacterium; D004681:Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D007780:Lacticaseibacillus casei; D008297:Male; D004676:Myelin Basic Protein / Q000276:immunology; D019936:Probiotics / Q000009:adverse effects*; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D004676:Myelin Basic Protein