Effect of lactic acid bacteria on intestinal E. coli in Caenorhabditis elegans

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) prevent host organism from digestion-related illnesses, such as constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, and enteric infection. In this study, we investigated whether dietary LAB culture product reduced the level of viable intestinal E. coli , using nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as host animal. Among four LAB strains, Lactobacillus plantarum product most significantly reduced the number of E. coli living in the intestine of both 2-day and 7-day old adult C. elegans . The lower number of E. coli in the digestion system by LAB products consequently resulted in decrease of living E. coli in the excrement. LAB products led to an improvement of body growth, survival ratio and reproduction in C. elegans . Based on in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activity analysis, it was also suggested that LAB products reduce oxidative stress in the body.