BACKGROUND Because of changes in gut physiology, immune system reactivity, and diet, elderly people are more susceptible to gastrointestinal infections than are younger adults. The gut microflora, which provides a natural defense against invading microorganisms, changes in elderly people with the development of potentially damaging bacterial populations, which may lead to alterations in bacteri...

This study investigated the effect of added freeze-dried mulberry fruit juice (FDMJ) (1, 3 and 5%) on the antioxidant activity and fermented characteristic of yogurt during refrigerated storage. A decrease in pH of yogurt and increase in acidity was observed during fermentation. The yogurts with FDMJ exhibited faster rate of pH reduction than control. Initial lactic acid bacteria count of yogur...

AIM The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the synbiotic Bifidobacterium lactis B94 plus inulin addition to the standard triple therapy on Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection eradication rates. METHODS Children aged 6-16 years who had biopsy proven H. pylori infection were randomly classified into two groups. The first group received the standard triple therapy consisting o...

BACKGROUND Standard anti-Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) treatment fails in the eradication of the organism in almost 10-35% of the patients and has different side effects. Recent studies have proposed that probiotic supplementations with or without prebiotic may improve the eradication rate and diminish the side effects, although it is still a controversial issue. We aimed to investigate the e...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate oro-cecal intestinal transit time (ITT) before and after administration of a dairy product containing Bifidobacterium BB12, Lactobacillus casei CRL 431 and fiber in healthy women. METHODS A prospective, randomised, double-blind and cross-over study with a 4-phase design (run-in: time 0 [T0], two intervention periods: time 1 [T1] and time 3 [T3] and a wash-out: time 2, [T...

AIM The objective of the study was to assess the effect of combination treatment of insulin, pioglitazone and synbiotic on streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS Diabetes mellitus was induced chemically by intraperitoneal administration of STZ (40 mg/kg b.wt) to male Sprague-Dawley rats. The rats were divided randomly into six groups of six rats in each. Group 1 was...

One strategy for enhancing the establishment of probiotic bacteria in the human intestinal tract is via the parallel administration of a prebiotic, which is referred to as a synbiotic. Here we present a novel method that allows a rational selection of putative probiotic strains to be used in synbiotic applications: in vivo selection (IVS). This method consists of isolating candidate probiotic s...

Prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics are components that enhance human health by several mechanisms. Patients suffering from type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and colorectal cancer have seen benefits when treated with a prebiotic, probiotic or synbiotic therapy. These benefits include the improvement of their lipid profile, oxidative stress status, as well as the modulation of the inflammatory ...

Prevention of infectious complications after major surgeries including those for cancer has been a major concern in the clinical field. To overcome this problem, probiotics and synbiotics (combination of probiotics and prebiotics have recently been introduced for post-operative treatment. Clinical application of synbiotics in severe cases, such as severe pediatric surgical cases, acute pancreat...