title: Highly Heterogeneous Probiotic Lactobacillus Species in Healthy Iranians with Low Functional Activities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been considered as potentially probiotic organisms due to their potential human health properties. This study aimed to evaluate both in vitro and in vivo, the potential probiotic properties of Lactobacillus species isolated from fecal samples of healthy humans in Iran.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 470 LAB were initially isolated from 53 healthy individual and characterized to species level. Of these, 88 (86%) were Lactobacillus species. Biochemical and genetic fingerprinting with Phene-Plate system (PhP-LB) and RAPD-PCR showed that the isolates were highly diverse consisted of 67(76.1%) and 75 (85.2%) single types (STs) and a diversity indices of 0.994 and 0.997, respectively. These strains were tested for production of adhesion to Caco-2 cells, antibacterial activity, production of B12, anti-proliferative effect and interleukin-8 induction on gut epithelial cell lines and antibiotic resistance against 9 commonly used antibiotics. Strains showing the characteristics consistent with probiotic strains, were further tested for their anti-inflammatory effect in mouse colitis model. Only one L. brevis; one L. rhamnosus and two L. plantarum were shown to have significant probiotic properties. These strains showed shortening the length of colon compared to dextran sulfate sodium and disease activity index (DAI) was also significantly reduced in mouse.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Low number of LAB with potential probiotic activity as well as high diversity of lactobacilli species was evident in Iranian population. It also suggest that specific strains of L. plantarum, L. brevis and L. rhamnosus with anti-inflammatory effect in mouse model of colitis could be used as a potential probiotic candidate in inflammatory bowel disease to decrease the disease activity index.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rohani
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nasrin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Noohi
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Malihe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Talebi
authors.affiliation: Genecology Research Centre, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katouli
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Pourshafie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007492:Iran; D007778:Lactobacillus; D019936:Probiotics; D012016:Reference Values; D014805:Vitamin B 12 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014805:Vitamin B 12