Han Hyeontak, You Yeji, Cha Soyoung, Kim Tae-Rahk, Sohn Minn, Park Jeseong
Center for Research and Development, Lactomason Co., Ltd., Jinju 52840, Republic of Korea.
Microorganisms. 2023 Mar 3;11(3):656. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms11030656.
Although leaky gut syndrome is not recognized as an official diagnosis for human diseases, it is now believed that dysfunction of the cell barrier causes increased permeability of intestinal epithelial cells leading to this condition. Probiotics have been widely used to improve gut health, and studies have investigated the relevance of protecting the intestinal barrier by taking probiotic strains in vitro and in vivo. However, most studies have restricted the use of single or several probiotic strains and do not consider commercially available probiotic products composed of multi-species. In this study, we provide experimental evidence that a multi-species probiotic mixture composed of eight different strains and a heat-treated probiotic strain is effective in preventing leaky gut conditions. We employed an in vitro co-culture model system utilizing two different differentiated cell lines to mimic human intestinal tissue. The integrity of epithelial barrier function was protected by the preserving the occludin protein level and activating the AMPK signaling pathway, associated with tight junctions (TJs), through treatment with the probiotic strain mixture in Caco-2 cells. Moreover, we confirmed that application of the multi-species probiotic mixture reduced the expression of proinflammatory cytokine genes by inhibiting NFκB signaling pathway when artificial inflammation was induced in an in vitro co-culture model system. Finally, we proved that the epithelial permeability measured by trans-epithelial electrical resistance (TEER) was significantly decreased in the probiotic mixture treated cells, indicating that the integrity of the epithelial barrier function was not compromised. The multi-species probiotic strain mixture exhibited the protective effect on the integrity of intestinal barrier function via enhancing TJ complexes and reducing inflammatory responses in the human intestinal cells.
尽管肠漏综合征尚未被确认为人类疾病的官方诊断，但现在人们认为细胞屏障功能障碍会导致肠道上皮细胞通透性增加，从而引发这种病症。益生菌已被广泛用于改善肠道健康，并且已有研究在体外和体内研究了服用益生菌菌株对保护肠道屏障的相关性。然而，大多数研究仅使用单一或几种益生菌菌株，并未考虑由多种菌株组成的市售益生菌产品。在本研究中，我们提供了实验证据，表明由八种不同菌株组成的多菌株益生菌混合物以及一种热处理的益生菌菌株可有效预防肠漏情况。我们采用了一种体外共培养模型系统，利用两种不同的分化细胞系来模拟人体肠道组织。通过在Caco-2细胞中用益生菌菌株混合物处理，维持闭合蛋白水平并激活与紧密连接（TJ）相关的AMPK信号通路，从而保护上皮屏障功能的完整性。此外，我们证实在体外共培养模型系统中诱导人工炎症时，多菌株益生菌混合物的应用通过抑制NFκB信号通路降低了促炎细胞因子基因的表达。最后，我们证明在用益生菌混合物处理的细胞中，通过跨上皮电阻（TEER）测量的上皮通透性显著降低，这表明上皮屏障功能的完整性未受到损害。多菌株益生菌混合物通过增强TJ复合物并减少人类肠道细胞中的炎症反应，对肠道屏障功能的完整性表现出保护作用。
