Multifarious cholesterol lowering potential of lactic acid bacteria equipped with desired probiotic functional attributes.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolates possessed functional probiotic attributes, such as high hydrophobicity and autoaggregation ability, coaggregation capability with bacterial pathogens, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant potential, and hypocholesterolemic effects. Selected potential probiotic LAB, i.e. M3, M5, M7, and few others were studied for their ability to lower cholesterol using a number of methods viz. cholesterol assimilation, bile salt deconjugation, cholesterol co-precipitation, cholesterol adhesion to probiotic cell wall, and miceller sequestration of cholesterol. M5 showed maximum bile salt hydrolase (BSH) activity, and released 57.63 nmol of glycine/min, and was closely followed by LAB isolate M9 which generated 52.12 nmol of glycine/min. Sodium glycocholate was deconjugated by M5 to produce 27.77 μmol/mL of cholic acid, while other isolates produced 20-26 μmol/mL of cholic acid. Cholesterol was assimilated significantly by isolate M6 (82.15%) and M5 (76.51%). M5 showed higher cholesterol co-precipitation ability (50.16 μg/mL) as compared to other LAB isolates (33-44 μg/mL). Miceller cholesterol concentration was reduced maximally by LAB isolate M8 (87.5%), followed by isolates M5 (84.75%), M9 (84%), M10 (80%), and M37 (79%). Higher cell wall adhesion of cholesterol was realized by M5 (42.48 μg/mL) than other LAB isolates (30-40 μg/mL). Selected LAB probiotics demonstrated short chain fatty acid (acetate, propionate, and butyrate) producing ability, yet another way of probiotics-mediated cholesterol lowering.