Next Generation in Probiotics

 

On the market there is a large number of probiotics, which contain live beneficial microorganisms intended for the restoration of violated intestinal biocenosis. Current probiotics are obtained by laboratory cultivation on nutrient media. However, bacteria living in nature are greatly different by the properties from the cultures grown in ‘‘classic’’ laboratory conditions. The dominant lifestyle of bacteria in the natural environment is biofilm. Biofilm is a stress-tolerant community of microorganisms held together by intercellular junctions and a self-produced extracellular matrix, which forms on the surface of objects of the environment and the tissues of living organisms. We proposed that biofilm probiotics had advantage over the marketed planktonic ones. One can suppose that biofilm-driven gene expression might make the probiotics bacteria harmful for health. Three responses can be given as a counterclaim. First, the resident microbiota of the human and animal body grows in a biofilm. Second, according to our study the traditional health-giving foods Natto (similar to Pepoke of Myanmar, Chungkukjang and Doenjang of Korea, Sufu or Furu of China and Thua nao of Thailand, soya beans fermented by terrestrial bacilli), which Japanese consume for hundreds of years, include fermenting bacteria in a biofilm. Third, our experiments on animals (mice, dogs, poultry, aquaculture fish) and human volunteers show that the biofilm bacteria are not only harmless but health beneficial. So the results of our studies indicate the possibility of bacterial biofilm growing technology application for the development of veterinary/medical probiotic preparations and products of functional nutrition.