BACKGROUND Citrobacter rodentium is a naturally occurring murine pathogen that causes colonic epithelial-cell hyperplasia, disrupts the colonic mucosa, and elicits a predominantly T helper 1 cellular immune response; it thereby serves as a model for the study of mechanisms of disease induced by human attaching-effacing pathogens. We sought to determine whether pretreatment of mice with a mixtur...

BACKGROUND Probiotics are live microorganisms that confer nutrition- and health-promoting benefits if consumed in adequate amounts. Concomitant with the demand for natural approaches to maintaining health is an increase in inclusion of probiotics in food and health products. Since probiotic bacteria act as reservoir for antibiotic resistant determinants, the transfer of these genes to pathogens...

BACKGROUND Whether probiotics are beneficial at all stages of treatment in inflammatory bowel disease or superior to placebo remains controversial. METHODS Two reviewers independently selected randomized controlled trials comparing probiotics with controls in inflammatory bowel disease and extracted data related to remission/response rates, relapse rates, and adverse events. Subanalyses were ...

The date of the original protocol was January 2004 2 SUMMARY Background. Atopic diseases are increasing in countries with a Western lifestyle. The hygiene hypothesis states that the increase in atopic disease could be due to reduced exposure to microbial antigens in early in life. In search of new preventive therapies for atopic disease, exposure of pregnant women with previous or recent atopic...

BACKGROUND Probiotics increase beneficial microbiota and improve chronic conditions, such as atopic diseases, irritable bowel disease, and obesity. However, because there are so many probiotics, it is unknown which probiotics might have more of an effect on intestinal microbiota. OBJECTIVE To understand how two different types of probiotics influence human intestinal microbiota, human fecal m...

BACKGROUND Probiotic products that may modify the intestinal microbiota are becoming increasingly available and known to consumers due to their potential to prevent or treat many pediatric health conditions. As scientific knowledge of the health benefits of probiotics increases, it is important to identify factors that may prevent their successful integration into patient care as well as to ens...

BACKGROUND Lactobacilli are non-spore forming, lactic acid producing, gram-positive rods. They are a part of the normal gastrointestinal and genitourinary microbiota and have rarely been reported to be the cause of infections. Lactobacilli species are considered non-pathogenic organisms and have been used as probiotics to prevent antibiotic associated diarrhea. There are sporadic reported cases...

BACKGROUND Traveler's diarrhea (TD) is a common health complaint among travelers. Rates of TD can range from 5% to 50%, depending on the destination. The use of probiotics for this disease remains controversial. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of probiotics for the prevention of TD based on published randomized, controlled clinical trials. METHODS PubMed, Google Schola...

BACKGROUND It has been unclear whether supplemental probiotics therapy improves clinical outcomes in type 2 diabetic patients. This meta-analysis aimed to summarize the effect of probiotics on glucose and lipid metabolism and C-reactive protein (CRP) from 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs). MATERIAL AND METHODS An up-to-date search was performed for all relevant RCTs up to April 2016 from P...

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that probiotics modulate atopic dermatitis (AD) progression, but no data are actually available on their mechanisms of action and on their ability to act as immunomodulators in this pathology. OBJECTIVE The aim of this randomized double-blinded active treatment versus placebo study was to evaluate clinical efficacy of an intake of a combination of 2 probiotics...