3,014 research outputs found
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E. coli as a probiotic
No full textToday the use of probiotic microbes to improve health is becoming an increasing popular concept, especially in the marketing of yoghurt drinks and similar products found on our supermarket shelves. Bob Rastall and Glen Gibson describe how E. coli may also prove to be another probiotic candidate
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An in vitro study of the effect of probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics on the elderly faecal microbiota
No full textThe use of dietary intervention in the elderly in order to beneficially modulate their gut microbiota has not been extensively studied. The influence of two probiotics (Bifidobacterium longum and Lactobacillus fermentum) and two prebiotics [isomaltooligosaccharides (IMO) and short-chain fructooligosaccharides (FOS)], individually and in synbiotic combinations (B. longum with IMO, L. fermentum with FOS) on the gut microbiota of elderly individuals was investigated using faecal batch cultures and three-stage continuous culture systems. Population changes of major bacterial groups were enumerated using fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH). B. longum and IMO alone significantly increased the Bifidobacterium count after 5 and 10 h of fermentation and their synbiotic combination significantly decreased the Bacteroides count after 5 h of fermentation. L. fermentum and FOS alone significantly increased the Bifidobacterium count after 10 h and 5, 10 and 24 h of fermentation respectively. B. longum with IMO as well as B. longum and IMO alone significantly increased acetic acid concentration during the fermentation in batch cultures. In the three-stage continuous culture systems, both synbiotic combinations increased the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus count in the third vessel representing the distal colon. In addition, the synbiotic combination of L. fermentum with scFOS resulted in a significant increase in the concentration of acetic acid. The results show that the elderly gut microbiota can be modulated in vitro with the appropriate pro-, pre- and synbiotics
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Development of antimicrobial synbiotics using potentially-probiotic faecal isolates of Lactobacillus fermentum and Bifidobacterium longum
No full textThe aims of the present study were to investigate in vitro the antimicrobial activity of Lactobacillus fermentum and Bifidobacterium longum, isolated from faeces of healthy elderly individuals, against enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (E. coli O157:H7) and enteropathogenic E. coli (E. coli O86), to determine the capability of the selected strains to tolerate acid and bile in vitro, to select suitable carbohydrates in order to enhance the growth and maximise antimicrobial activity of the putative probiotic organisms and examine the adhesion properties of the synbiotics.
Antimicrobial activity of the putative probiotics and synbiotics was investigated by a microtitre method using cell-free culture supernatants (CFCS). Results of the antimicrobial assay showed that both putative probiotic strains produced compounds at pH 5 that lead to higher lag phases of both E. coli O157:H7 and E. coli O86. When half the quantity of cell-free culture supernatants of both probiotic strains was used at pH 5, B. longum maintained the same antimicrobial effect against both strains of E. coli, whereas L. fermentum lead to a higher lag phase of E. coli O86 only. Neutralization of the culture supernatants with alkali reduced the antimicrobial effect with only cell-free supernatant of L. fermentum causing lower maximum growth rates of E. coli O157:H7 and E. coli O86. L. fermentum appeared to be acid tolerant whereas B. longum was more susceptible to acid and both isolates were bile tolerant.
A short chain fructooligosaccharide (scFOS) and an isomalto-oligosaccharide (IMO) proved to be the most effective substrates, enhancing antimicrobial activity for L. fermentum and B. longum respectively. The adhesion of the synbiotic combinations showed that L. fermentum, exhibited higher percentage of adhesion when grown on glucose and as a synbiotic combination with scFOS whereas B. longum exhibited lowest percentage of adhesion when grown on both glucose and IMO
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Antimicrobial activity of selected synbiotics targeted for the elderly against pathogenic Escherichia coli strains.
No full textThe aim of the present study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of two synbiotic combinations, Lactobacillus fermentum with short-chain fructooligosaccharides (FOS-LF) and Bifidobacterium longum with isomaltooligosaccharides (IMO-BL), against enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 and enteropathogenic E. coli O86. Antimicrobial activity was determined (1) by co-culturing the synbiotics and pathogens in batch cultures, and (2) with the three-stage continuous culture system (gut model), inoculated with faecal slurry from an elderly donor. In the co-culture experiments, IMO-BL was significantly inhibitory to both E. coli strains, while FOS-LF was slightly inhibitory or not inhibitory. Factors other than acid production appeared to play a role in the inhibition. In the gut models, both synbiotics effectively inhibited E. coli O157 in the first vessel, but not in vessels 2 and 3. E. coli O86 was not significantly inhibited
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No full textHere is a curious book. Its title-page declares "The Artist's Book of Fables" but its pre-title-page has "Fables, Original and Selected, with a Memoir of the Author." After that title-page, it is identical with "Fables, Original and Selected" as in our copy printed by John Murray in 1833. There is again an AI at the front and an index of engravings and engravers at the back. I found that copy twenty years ago. I had found an inferior copy twenty-two years before that. At that time, I noted Aesopic fables here including "Stone Broth" and "The Mouse and the Oyster."This is a hardbound book (hard cover)James Northcote, R.A
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Post-genomics approaches towards monitoring changes within the microbial ecology of the gut
No full textThe human gut microbiota, comprising many hundreds of different microbial species, has closely co-evolved with its human host over the millennia. Diet has been a major driver of this co-evolution, in particular dietary non-digestible carbohydrates. This dietary fraction reaches the colon and becomes available for microbial fermentation, and it is in the colon that the great diversity of gut microorganisms resides. For the vast majority of our evolutionary history humans followed hunter-gatherer life-styles and consumed diets with many times more non-digestible carbohydrates, fiber and whole plant polyphenol rich foods than typical Western style diets today
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Human colonic microbiology and the role of dietary intervention: introduction to prebiotics
No full textTurbulent entrainment in a shearless mixing layer at the edge of a cloud
No full textThree-dimensional direct numerical simulations which combine the Eulerian description of temperature, vapor content and velocity with a Lagrangian ensemble of cloud water droplets are used to study the turbulent entrainment and subsequent mixing of clear air with a cloudy air filament. The study is conducted in a shearless mixing layer setup which is adjusted to realistic conditions at a cumulus cloud boundary. The magnitude of turbulent velocity fluctuations in- and outside the cloud can be varied independently. We find that the evolution of the cloud water droplet ensemble depends slightly only on the contrast of turbulent velocity fluctuations in- and outside the cloud filament. The buoyancy feedback on the flow via the evaporating droplets causes a transient amplification of all fluctuations before the turbulence eventually decays. We study the evolution of the probability density functions of droplet size as well as of supersaturation, temperature and vorticity at the droplet positions
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