Safety assessment of Lactobacillus strains: Presence of putative risk factors in faecal, blood and probiotic isolates

The widespread use of immunosuppressive therapy and antimicrobial agents as well as novel probiotics without a long history of safe use has increased requirements for safety assessment of probiotic lactobacilli. In this study 44 faecal, 52 blood and 15 probiotic isolates (including 3 dairy strains) of Lactobacillus were assayed for their adhesion properties to extracellular matrix proteins and mucus, hemolysis, ability to avoid the induction of respiratory burst in peripheral blood mononucleocytes (PMN) and resistance to human serum. Among tested strains adhesion to collagen, fibrinogen and mucus was isolate-specific and no statistically significant differences were obtained between faecal, blood and probiotic isolates. However, blood isolates showed a trend for higher adhesion to mucus than probiotic strains (P = 0.07). Probiotic strains induced lower respiratory burst in PMN when compared to the blood isolates (P < 0.05). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between adhesion to collagen and induction of respiratory burst for faecal isolates (P < 0.05). In the determination of serum resistance, probiotic strains showed a trend for lower sensitivity to human serum-mediated killing when compared to the faecal isolates (P = 0.07). None of the measurable virulence factors were found to be present at statistically higher level in clinical blood isolates when compared to faecal and/or probiotic isolates indicating that these factors do not cause risk when safety of probiotics is considered. However, the significance of adhesion to mucus, low induction of respiratory burst in PMN and resistance to human serum-mediated killing may need further evaluation in experimental animal models and in epidemiological data.