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The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging Volume 17, Number 2, 2013
A PROBIOTICS-CONTAINING BISCUIT MODULATES THE INTESTINAL MICROBIOTA IN THE ELDERLY
S. Rampelli1, m. Candela1, m. SeveRgnini2, e. Biagi1, S. TuRRoni1, m. RoSelli3, p. CaRnevali4, l. donini5, p. BRigidi1
1. department of pharmaceutical Sciences, university of Bologna, Bologna, italy; 2. institute of Biomedical Technologies - italian national Research Council, milan, italy; 3. istituto nazionale di Ricerca per gli alimenti e la nutrizione, Roma, italy; 4. R&d Food microbiology & Bioprocess Research, Barilla g&R f.lli Spa, parma, italy; 5. medical physiopathology, Food Science and endocrinology Section, Food Science and Human nutrition Research unit, Sapienza university, Rome, italy.
Abstract: Objectives: evaluation of the impact of a biscuit containing the probiotics Bifidobacterium longum Bar33 and Lactobacillus helveticus Bar13 on the intestinal microbiota in the elderly. Design: Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Participants: Thirty-two elderly volunteers living in italy. The group was composed of 19 women and 13 men aged between 71 and 88 years (mean 76). Intervention: Subjects were randomized in two groups consuming one dose of the probiotics-containing biscuit or placebo once a day for 30 days. Measurements: For each subject the intestinal microbiota was characterized using the phylogenetic microarray platform HTF-microbi.array before and after intervention. Results: our data demonstrated that one-month consumption of a probiotics-containing biscuit was effective in redressing some of the age-related dysbioses of the intestinal microbiota. in particular, the probiotic treatment reverted the age-related increase of the opportunistic pathogens Clostridium cluster Xi, Clostridium difficile, Clostridium perfringens, Enterococcus faecium and the enteropathogenic genus Campylobacter. Conclusion: The present study opens the way to the development of elderly-tailored probiotic-based functional foods to counteract the age-related dysbioses of the intestinal microbiota.
Key words: intestinal microbiota, dysbioses, aging, inflammaging, probiotics.
Introduction
Human beings have been recently reviewed as metaorganisms as a result of a close symbiotic relationship with the intestinal microbiota (1). This extremely dynamic community of 1014 microbes, whose microbiome contains up to 6 x 106 million genes, has been reported as crucial for several aspects of our physiology, such as the digestive efficiency, the resistance to pathogen infection and the functionality of the immune system (2-4). This scenario opened the way to a holistic view of the human aging process, where the dynamics of interaction...