title: Prebiotic effects of bovine lactoferrin on specific probiotic bacteria.
abstract: Bovine lactoferrin (bLf) is a natural iron-binding protein and it has been suggested to be a prebiotic agent, but this finding remains inconclusive. This study explores the prebiotic potential of bLf in 14 probiotics. Initially, bLf (1-32 mg/mL) treatment showed occasional and slight prebiotic activity in several probiotics only during the late experimental period (48, 78 h) at 37 °C. We subsequently supposed that bLf exerts stronger prebiotic effects when probiotic growth has been temperately retarded. Therefore, we incubated the probiotics at different temperatures, namely 37 °C, 28 °C, room temperature (approximately 22-24 °C), and 22 °C, to retard or inhibit their growth. As expected, bLf showed more favorable prebiotic activity in several probiotics when their growth was partially retarded at room temperature. Furthermore, at 22 °C, the growth of Bifidobacterium breve, Lactobacillus coryniformis, L. delbrueckii, L. acidophilus, B. angulatum, B. catenulatum, and L. paraplantarum were completely blocked. Notably, these probiotics started regrowing in the presence of bLf (1-32 mg/mL) in a significant and dose-dependent manner. Accordingly, bLf significantly increased the growth of Pediococcus pentosaceus, L. rhamnosus, and L. paracasei (BCRC 17483; a locally isolated strain) when their growth was retarded by incubation at 22 °C. In conclusion, bLf showed inconsistent prebiotic activity in the 14 probiotics at 37 °C, but revealed strong prebiotic activity in 10 probiotic strains at 22 °C. Therefore, this study enables determining additional roles of Lf in probiotic strains, which can facilitate developing novel combinational approaches by simultaneously using Lf and specific probiotics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, St. Mary's Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Yilan, Taiwan, Republic of China. pwchen@smc.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Po-Wen
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City, 24301, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhen-Shu
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City, 24301, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Tai-Chen
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City, 24301, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Min-Chi
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City, 24301, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhe-Wei
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001644:Bifidobacterium / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development; D000069984:Bifidobacterium breve / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D002417:Cattle; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development; D007779:Lactobacillus acidophilus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D048668:Lactobacillus delbrueckii / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D007781:Lactoferrin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000070006:Pediococcus pentosaceus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D056692:Prebiotics; D019936:Probiotics; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D056692:Prebiotics; D007781:Lactoferrin
keywords: Bifidobacterium; Lactic acid bacterium; Lactoferrin; Prebiotic; Probiotic