The potential role of Bifidobacterium spp. as a preventive and therapeutic agent in controlling inflammation via affecting inflammatory signalling pathways.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease with relapses and periods of remission. Forasmuch as, dysregulation of the immune system is one of the triggers of IBD, taking probiotics as one of the immunomodulators in the gut, could help to control inflammation and IBD via influencing signalling pathways. Here, we aimed to investigate the efficacy of five selected Bifidobacterium strains in modulating JAK/STAT and NF-kB inflammatory signalling pathways via using the in vitro assay. A quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay was used to analyse the expression of JAK/STAT and inflammatory genes followed by potential probiotic treatments before, after and simultaneously with the inflammation induction (sonicated pathogen). The production of IL-6 and IL-1β after probiotic treatment was evaluated. Probiotic treatment resulted in the downregulation of TIRAP, IRAK4, NEMO and RIP genes in the NF-kB pathway, as well as JAK genes compared to sonicate-treated cells. The expression of STAT genes was different after our selected Bifidobacterium strains treatment. The production of IL-6 and IL-1β decreased after probiotic treatment. These strains of Bifidobacterium spp. showed anti-inflammatory effects on HT-29 cells via modulation of JAK/STAT and NF-kB signalling pathways. The use of Bifidobacterium spp. could be considered as a suitable preventive and complementary treatment for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.