Collaborative cytometric inter-laboratory ring test for probiotics quantification.

Introduction: Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. From this definition, accurate enumeration of probiotic products is a necessity. Nonetheless, this definition does not specify the methods for assessing such viability.

Isolation and Characterization of New Probiotic Strains From Chinese Babies.

Goals: The aims of this study were to isolate, to identify, and to characterize new potential probiotic strains from the feces of Chinese neonates.

Background: Probiotic strains approved in China for use in infants were declared to originate from the human gut of Western subjects. Diet is listed among the main factors affecting the composition of the human gut along with other factors such as genetics, lifestyle, and health status.

Administration of bifidobacterium and lactobacillus strains modulates experimental myasthenia gravis and experimental encephalomyelitis in Lewis rats.

Probiotics beneficial effects on the host are associated with regulation of the intestinal microbial homeostasis and with modulation of inflammatory immune responses in the gut and in periphery. In this study, we investigated the clinical efficacy of two lactobacillus and two bifidobacterium probiotic strains in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG) and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) models, induced in Lewis rats. Treatment with probiotics led to less severe disease manifestation in both models; analyses showed preservation of neuromuscular junction in EAMG and myelin content in EAE spinal cord.