Characterisation of Lactobacillus gastricus strains isolated from human milk

Lactobacillus gastricus, which was isolated and characterised for the first time from human gastric mucosa of healthy individuals, has been found recently in breast milk samples obtained from healthy women. The main objective of this work was to study technological (ability to grow in milk, acidifying activity, and some enzymatic activities) and potentially probiotic (antimicrobial potential, and resistance to the transit through the digestive tract) properties, as well as other properties related to safety (production of biogenic amines and antibiotic resistance) and storage stability, in a collection of L. gastricus strains previously isolated from human milk to evaluate their potential application in the dairy industry. Although a high variability among the strains was observed in most of the properties studied, the singular source of these strains and some of their biological, technological and functional attributes could be useful for dairy industry and deserve further study.