Bioscience and Microflora
Online ISSN : 1349-8355
Print ISSN : 1342-1441
ISSN-L : 1342-1441
Volume 29, Issue 2
Displaying 1-4 of 4 articles from this issue
Review
  • Shuichi Kaminogawa
    Article type: Review
    2010 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 69-82
    Published: 2010
    Released on J-STAGE: May 19, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    It has become clear that foods regulate the physiological functions of the human body through their action on the immune, nervous, endocrine and other systems. It is also known that the intestine is equipped with an immune system, that the large bowel has intestinal flora, and that there is a cooperative relationship between the intestinal flora and the intestinal immune system. This review will deal with the effects of orally ingested functional components of food such as probiotics, prebiotics, vitamins and minerals on the mutualism between intestinal flora and the intestinal immune system as well as their effects on the systemic immune system. Furthermore, the relationship between the collapse of the mutualism and onset of diseases is discussed.
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  • Jiro Nakayama
    Article type: Review
    2010 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 83-96
    Published: 2010
    Released on J-STAGE: May 19, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Pyrosequence-based 16S rRNA profiling has become a very powerful tool for visualizing the community structure of gastro-intestinal (GI) tract microbiota. The system was established with newly designed universal primers with barcode sequences and newly modified algorithms to convert batch sequence data to bacterial population data. In silico primer match simulation indicates that the primers, Q-968F, Q-1046R, and Q-1390R, match to almost of all 16S rRNAs in the database within one base mismatch, with especially high coverage ratios for the four biggest common phyla in human GI tract. Also, the new SeqmatchQ100 algorithm correctly assigns almost all of the target 60-base sequences of the 16S rRNA V6 region to the corresponding genus except for those from the Enterobacteriaceae family and the Enterococcus genus. Furthermore, the SeqmatchQ400 algorithm efficiently provides species-level population data from a 400-base sequence of the 16S rRNA V6-V8 region with the exceptions of the Enterobacteriaceae and Enterococcaceae families. A barcode-sequence tag strategy was used to analyze up to 128 samples at a time. With these newly prepared tools, pyrosequence-based 16S rRNA profiling displays community structures of GI-tract microbiota. For instance, establishment of bifidus flora in newborn infants and dynamics in the microbial community structure after weaning were effectively demonstrated by 16S rRNA profiling. In future, this analytical system should be of use for monitoring changes in GI-tract bacterial composition which may be influenced by diets, drugs, or sickness.
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Full Paper
  • Koji Nagashima, Daisuke Yasokawa, Kentaro Abe, Ryoji Nakagawa, Tooru K ...
    Article type: Full Paper
    2010 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 97-110
    Published: 2010
    Released on J-STAGE: May 19, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    To evaluate the effect of Lactobacillus plantarum strain Hokkaido, which was isolated from a kind of Japanese pickle, on the incidence of diarrhea in calves and on the intestinal microflora, we performed feeding tests with a milk replacer containing Lactobacillus sp. In Experiment 1, thirty two male Holstein calves were divided into two groups, a control (C) group and LPH group. L. plantarum strain HOKKAIDO was orally administered to the LPH group for 35 days. The diarrhea score and the number of calves with watery or soft stool were significantly (p<0.05) smaller in the LPH group than in the C group. In Experiment 2, ten male Holstein calves were divided into three groups: a control group, LPH group and BOV group. BovactinTM was administered to the BOV group and the experimental protocol followed that of Experiment 1. No significant difference was observed in the incidence of diarrhea among the three test groups. However, when the data of Experiments 1 and 2 were pooled, the incidence of diarrhea in the LPH group was significantly (p<0.05) lower than that of the control group. These results indicate that L. plantarum strain Hokkaido reduces the incidence of diarrhea in calves. Analysis of the microflora and measurement of the stool type of the fecal samples that were collected 0, 15 and 28 days after the start of administration were performed using a T-RFLP method and visual analysis, respectively. The clustering of the T-RFLP profiles indicated that when the significance of the distributions of the samples among the clusters was tested, a significant difference (p<0.01) was observed only among the sampling-date groups. The average value of the pairwise Pearson r within each sampling-date group indicated that T-RFLP profiles varied considerably among the calves on day 0 and day 15, while the profiles of day 28 closely resembled each other. From these results, we infer that the intestinal microflora of calves are less settled in the early days of life, and this might partially explain the higher incidence of diarrhea in this period. Bacteria belonging to the class Clostridia were most predominant at all the sampling-date groups. The day 0 samples were characterized by a larger population of bifidobacteria and lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The day 15 samples were characterized by larger populations of LAB and the class Bacteroidia. The day 28 samples were characterized by a larger population of Bacteroides.
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Note
  • Are Levels as Expected?
    Miguel Gueimonde, Arthur Ouwehand, Kaisu Pitkälä, Timo Stran ...
    Article type: Note
    2010 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 111-113
    Published: 2010
    Released on J-STAGE: May 19, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    We assessed the fecal bifidobacteria concentrations of 21 nursing home subjects prior to death and 21 age- and sex-matched controls. Bifidobacterial levels, determined by molecular methods, were in the range of those usually found in adults. Total fecal bifidobacterial concentrations determined by fluorescent in situ hybridization and quantitative real-time PCR tended to be lower, although not significantly, in subjects who subsequently died than in age- and sex-matched controls.
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