Lactoferrin inhibits Bacillus cereus growth and heme analogs recover its growth.

The growth of Bacillus cereus was markedly inhibited by the addition of lactoferrin and was recovered by the addition of FeCl3. The growth inhibition was also reversed by the addition of erythrocytes and hemoglobin. B. cereus can use heme or heme-protein complex (hemoglobin-haptoglobin and hematin-albumin complexes) as iron sources in iron deficient conditions. Therefore, B. cereus uses these heme or heme-protein complexes to prevent the growth inhibition of lactoferrin in vivo.