The present study aimed at assessing the counts and species distribution of intestinal lactobacilli and exploring if the data are associated with BMI and blood glucose level in healthy adults and elderly persons. The BMI (P < 0·01), the level of fasting blood glucose (P < 0·001) and the total counts of lactobacilli (P < 0·01 by bacteriology; P < 0·001 by real-time PCR) were higher in the elderl...

Oral administration of autoantigens is a safe and convenient way to induce peripheral T-cell tolerance in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS). To increase the efficacy of oral tolerance induction and obviate the need for large-scale purification of human myelin proteins, we use genetically modified lactobacilli expressing myelin antigens. A panel of recombinant lactobacilli was con...

BACKGROUND Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS). One potential therapeutic strategy for MS is to induce regulatory cells that mediate immunological tolerance. Probiotics, including lactobacilli, are known to induce immunomodulatory activity with promising effects in inflammatory diseases. We tested the potential of various stra...

liposarcoma of the digestive tract is very rare only a few cases of liposarcoma of the stomach have been reported so far. in this article a 29-year-old woman is presented with a history of long-standing mid-abdominal pain and various treatments for anemia and peptic ulcer disease which did not improve her symptoms until a barium-enema revealed a filling defect in the cecum. under laparotomy a l...

Three strains of lactobacilli, Lactobacillus casei subsp. casei 64H, L. casei subsp. rhamnosus OC91, and L. coryniformis M34, were examined for the presence of plasmids. Plasmids of molecular weights of 23 x 10(6) and 16 x 10(6) were found in the first two strains respectively. This represents the first evidence for plasmids in lactobacilli; their function is not presently known.

Azoreductase activity in the ceca of mice lacking lactobacilli as members of the normal microflora (reconstituted-lactobacillus-free [RLF] mice) was compared with that of RLF mice whose gastrointestinal tracts were colonized by strains of Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Lactobacillus fermentum. Azoreductase activity was 31% lower in the ceca of mice colonized by lactobacilli.

Epidemiological studies suggest H(2)O(2)-producing lactobacilli protect women against gonorrhea. Here we demonstrate that Lactobacillus crispatus and Lactobacillus jensenii, the most common lactobacilli in the female genital tract, inhibit gonococci in both acidic and neutral pH conditions. Inhibition was neutralized by bovine catalase, suggesting that H(2)O(2) is the primary mediator of inhibi...

It is known that the stomach is colonized by indigenous lactobacilli in mice. The aim of this study was to examine the role of such lactobacilli in the development of the stomach. For a DNA microarray analysis, germ-free BALB/c mice were orally inoculated with 10(9) CFU lactobacilli, and their stomachs were excised after 10 days to extract RNA. As a result, lactobacillus-associated gnotobiotic ...

Urogenital infections are the most common ailments afflicting women. They are treated with dated antimicrobials whose efficacy is diminishing. The process of infection involves pathogen adhesion and displacement of indigenous Lactobacillus crispatus and Lactobacillus jensenii. An alternative therapeutic approach to antimicrobial therapy is to reestablish lactobacilli in this microbiome through ...

BACKGROUND Bacteriophages infecting lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widely acknowledged as the main cause of milk fermentation failures. In this study, we describe the surface-expression as well as the secretion of two functional llama heavy-chain antibody fragments, one binding to the major capsid protein (MCP) and the other to the receptor-binding proteins (RBP) of the lactococcal bacteriophag...