Probiotic has positive impact on weight, glucose tolerance

A STUDY carried out as part of collaboration between Professor Remy Burcelin, an expert of glucose metabolism and research director at the National Institute of Health & Medical Research in France, and the DuPont Nutrition & Health Research Centre, shows the effects of DuPont™ Danisco® Probiotic Strain Bifidobacterium Animalis Subsp. Lactis 420 (B420™).

Administered to two high-fat diet models, obese mice with metabolic disorders, or diabetic mice, B420 has shown to drastically reduce body fat mass, and improve glucose tolerance which was impaired in high-fat diet mouse models. Importantly, B420 treatment reduced liver inflammatory markers in the diabetic mice to the level of healthy control mice. This finding indicates that probiotic treatment may have further widespread effects on metabolism. Intestinal mechanisms were explored in the diabetic mouse model where B420™ was shown to reduce adhesion of certain pathogenic bacteria onto the small intestinal mucosa. These bacteria hold a highly inflammatory surface molecule called lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Elevated blood LPS concentration, i.e. metabolic endotoxemia, is blamed by many scientists for low-grade inflammation, insulin resistance, and even obesity. Strikingly, B420™ also was able to completely normalize plasma lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels in diabetic mice.