The synbiotic was associated with a suppression of abnormal immune responses and a reduction in damage in the colon in the lab mice, while levels of beneficial short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) increased, leading to a decrease in inflammation.
“The study provides valuable insights into synergistic mechanisms of synbiotic supplementation that operate by resolving dysregulated immune response, weakened mucosal barrier integrity and altered metabolic profile, thus attenuating gut inflammation,” wrote scientists from the University of Tasmania, Swinburne University of Technology, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in the European Journal of Nutrition.
“The observed synergistic functioning ameliorating or preventing the disease severity in [chemically]-induced mice model supports its further investigation for mitigating inflammation in human IBD. Furthermore, synergistic combinations of these synbiotic ingredients could be applied to develop novel shelf-stable foods targeted at improving gut health.”
Study details
The researchers used C57BL/6 mice and fed them a standard rodent chow diet supplemented with either B. coagulans, green banana resistant starch (GBRS), or a synbiotic combination of the two. After one week of supplementation, dextran-sulfate sodium (DSS) was added to the drinking water to chemically induce colitis in the mice, and the animals were monitored for another week.
The results showed that the synbiotic alleviated disease activity index and histological damage scores more than the probiotic or prebiotic alone.
In addition, the synbiotic significantly maintained the expression of tight junction (TJ) proteins.
“While the efficacy of the synbiotic combination to stimulate TJ proteins and/or circumvent the TJ degradation by DSS needs further investigation, taken together the results support the ability of the prebiotic and probiotic combination to reinforce intestinal barrier integrity and help prevent the manifestation of IBD,” wrote the researchers.
Biomarkers of inflammation were also significantly improved with pro-inflammatory IL-1β and C-reactive protein reduced by about 40% and 37%, respectively. On the other hand, anti-inflammatory IL-10 were increased by 29%.
Regarding SCFA production, the researchers note that B. coagulans by itself increased levels up to the caecum, but not beyond this. However, “the synbiotic combination with GBRS resulted in substantial increased SCFA levels across the whole length of the colon,” they reported.
The synbiotic supplementation with B. coagulans and GBRS ameliorated the overall inflammatory status of the experimental IBD model via synergistic functioning. This supports researching its application in mitigating inflammation in human IBD.
“The probiotic and prebiotic components complement each other to potentiate the beneficial effects,” wrote the researchers. “The combination of the probiotic B. coagulans MTCC5856 spores and GBRS also improved the production of the metabolites and SCFAs. Together these could similarly function to modulate the inflammatory parameters and ameliorate the disease severity.”
Source: European Journal of Nutrition
2020, Volume 59, 3669–3689. Doi: 10.1007/s00394-020-02200-9
“Synbiotic supplementation with prebiotic green banana resistant starch and probiotic Bacillus coagulans spores ameliorates gut inflammation in mouse model of inflammatory bowel diseases”
Authors: T. Shinde, et al.
