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Putative Probiotic Strains Isolated from Kefir Improve Gastrointestinal Health Parameters in Adults: a Randomized, Single-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

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Abstract

The dairy products remain as the largest reservoir for isolation of probiotic microorganisms. While probiotics have been immensely reported to exert various health benefits, it is also a common notion that these health potentials are strain and host dependent, leading to the need of more human evidence based on specific strains, health targets, and populations. This randomized, single-blind, and placebo-controlled human study aimed to evaluate the potential benefits of putative probiotic strains isolated from kefir on gastrointestinal parameters in fifty-six healthy adults. The consumption of AB-kefir (Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. fermentum, L. helveticus, L. paracasei, L. rhamnosus, and Streptococcus thermophiles; total 10 log CFU/sachet) daily for 3 week reduced symptoms of abdominal pain, bloating (P = 0.014), and appetite (P = 0.041) in male subjects as compared to the control. Gut microbiota distribution profiles were shifted upon consumption of AB-kefir compared to baseline, where the abundance of bifidobacteria was increased in male subjects and maintained upon cessation of AB-kefir consumption. The consumption of AB-kefir also increased gastrointestinal abundance of total anaerobes (P = 0.038) and total bacterial (P = 0.049) in female subjects compared to the control after 3 weeks. Our results indicated that AB-kefir could potentially be developed as a natural strategy to improve gastrointestinal functions in adults.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the funder for providing ideas in the stages of designing the experiments and reading the manuscript for intellectual content prior to submission as per decisions of authors.

Funding

This study was supported by the grant from The Southern Taiwan Science Park, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Grant Number: 100CB03).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Ming-Cheng Wang

  2. Institute of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Ming-Cheng Wang

  3. School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia

    Ahmad Imran Zaydi & Min-Tze Liong

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Wei-Hung Lin

  5. Culture Collection and Research Institute, SYNBIO TECH INC., Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Jin-Seng Lin

  6. Department of Biotechnology and Laboratory Science in Medicine, School of Biomedical Science and Engineering, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Jiunn-Jong Wu

Authors
  1. Ming-Cheng Wang
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  2. Ahmad Imran Zaydi
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  3. Wei-Hung Lin
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  4. Jin-Seng Lin
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  5. Min-Tze Liong
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Contributions

Placebo and study product were produced by SYNBIO TECH INC.

MCW, WHL, JSL, and JJW conceived and designed the experiments and performed the study. AIZ, JSL, and MTL analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Min-Tze Liong or Jiunn-Jong Wu.

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Wang, MC., Zaydi, A.I., Lin, WH. et al. Putative Probiotic Strains Isolated from Kefir Improve Gastrointestinal Health Parameters in Adults: a Randomized, Single-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study. Probiotics & Antimicro. Prot. 12, 840–850 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12602-019-09615-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12602-019-09615-9

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