Screening of potential lactobacilli antigenotoxicity by microbial and mammalian cell-based tests

Antigenotoxicity is considered an important property for probiotic lactobacilli. The ability of non probiotic lactobacilli from dairy products and starters to inhibit two reference genotoxins: 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide and N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine was evaluated. The study was carried out using short-term assays with different targets, such as procaryotic cells (SOS-Chromotest for genotoxicity in Escherichia coli and Ames test for mutagenicity in Salmonella typhimurium) and eucaryotic cells (Comet assay for genotoxicity in Caco-2 enterocytes). A high proportion of strains inhibiting 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide activity was found in Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Lactobacillus plantarum. Inhibition of N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine activity occurred in only one L. acidophilus strain. All the strains with antigenotoxic properties also demonstrated antimutagenic activity and produced modifications in genotoxin spectroscopic profiles. Strain viability during and after genotoxin exposure was confirmed. Concordance of the results obtained with microbial and mammalian cell-based tests is underlined.