AUTHOR=Cordeiro Bárbara F. , Alves Juliana L. , Belo Giovanna A. , Oliveira Emiliano R. , Braga Marina P. , da Silva Sara H. , Lemos Luisa , Guimarães Jonas T. , Silva Ramon , Rocha Ramon S. , Jan Gwénaël , Le Loir Yves , Silva Marcia Cristina , Freitas Mônica Q. , Esmerino Erick A. , Gala-García Alfonso , Ferreira Enio , Faria Ana Maria C. , Cruz Adriano G. , Azevedo Vasco , do Carmo Fillipe L. R. 

TITLE=Therapeutic Effects of Probiotic Minas Frescal Cheese on the Attenuation of Ulcerative Colitis in a Murine Model

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.623920

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2021.623920

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) constitute disturbances of gastrointestinal tract that cause irreversible changes in the structure and function of tissues. Ulcerative colitis (UC), the most frequent IBD in the population, is characterized by prominent inflammation of the human colon. Functional foods containing probiotic bacteria have been studied as adjuvants to the treatment or prevention of IBDs. The selected probiotic strain <italic>Lactococcus lactis</italic> NCDO 2118 (<italic>L. lactis</italic> NCDO 2118) exhibits immunomodulatory effects, with promising results in UC mouse model induced by dextran sodium sulfate (DSS). Additionally, cheese is a dairy food that presents high nutritional value, besides being a good delivery system that can be used to improve survival and enhance the therapeutic effects of probiotic bacteria in the host. Therefore, this work investigated the probiotic therapeutic effects of an experimental Minas Frescal cheese containing <italic>L. lactis</italic> NCDO 2118 in DSS-induced colitis in mice. During colitis induction, mice that consumed the probiotic cheese exhibited reduced in the severity of colitis, with attenuated weight loss, lower disease activity index, limited shortening of the colon length, and reduced histopathological score. Moreover, probiotic cheese administration increased gene expression of tight junctions’ proteins <italic>zo-1</italic>, <italic>zo-2</italic>, <italic>ocln</italic>, and <italic>cln-1</italic> in the colon and increase IL-10 release in the spleen and lymph nodes. In this way, this work demonstrates that consumption of probiotic Minas Frescal cheese, containing <italic>L. lactis</italic> NCDO 2118, prevents the inflammatory process during DSS-induced colitis in mice, opening perspectives for the development of new probiotic functional foods for personalized nutrition in the context of IBD.</p>