Article

Microbial-gut interactions in health and disease. Probiotics.

Department of Paediatrics, Turku University Central Hospital, Kiinamyllynkatu 4-8, 20520 Turku, Finland.
Baillière&#x027 s Best Practice and Research in Clinical Gastroenterology (impact factor: 2.46). 05/2004; 18(2):299-313. DOI:10.1016/j.bpg.2003.10.006 pp.299-313
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT The definition of probiotics has evolved from a live active culture which improves the balance of the gut microbiota composition to specific effects, in particular, the immunomodulatory potential of clearly defined strains. The strains with beneficial properties, potential sources of probiotics, most frequently belong to the genera Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, and some of these strains exhibit powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Indeed, probiotic therapy has attracted research interest in human infectious, inflammatory and allergic disease. The most fully documented disease altering the gut microbiota is acute infectious diarrhoea in childhood. Current probiotic research aims to provide safe but sufficient bacterial stimulus in order to avert deviant immune responsiveness related to allergic and inflammatory diseases. However, further rigorous scientific efforts are required to characterize the immunomodulatory potential of specific probiotic strains for these targets.

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Keywords

allergic
 
allergic disease
 
Current probiotic research
 
genera Bifidobacterium
 
gut microbiota
 
gut microbiota composition
 
human infectious
 
immunomodulatory potential
 
inflammatory diseases
 
live active culture
 
probiotics
 
rigorous scientific efforts
 
specific effects
 
specific probiotic strains
 
strains
 
strains exhibit powerful anti-inflammatory properties
 
sufficient bacterial stimulus