Study Links Conjugated Linoleic Acid Produced by Probiotic to Cancer Prevention.

A study conducted at the University of Alberta, Canada and published in the Journal of Nutrition (136:1483-1487, June 2006), investigated the mechanism of probiotic cultures in reducing the incidence of colon cancer. The ability of probiotic bacteria to exert anticarcinogenic effects through the production of Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA) was assessed. CLA are a group of isomers of Linoleic Acid (LA) possessing anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic properties, which can be produced from LA by certain probiotic bacterial strains.

Researchers incubated probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. casei, L. plantarum, Bifidobacterium breve, B. infantis, B. longum, and Streptococcus thermophilus) in the presence of LA and measured CLA yield by gas chromatography. Conditioned medium, containing the probiotic-produced CLA, effectively reduced the viability and induced apoptosis of test cell cultures in vitro, as assessed by MTT assay and DNA laddering, respectively.

Additionally, researchers found indications of cellular peroxisome proliferation (organelles of cellular detoxification) in cells treated with the conditioned medium as compared with LA alone. Finally, incubation of mouse feces with LA after administering the probiotic cultures yielded 100 times more CLA than feces collected prior to probiotic feeding. The researchers stated that their study supports a role for supplemental probiotics as a strategy both for attenuating inflammation and for preventing colon cancer.

See Bio-Design Probio-8 and Bio-CLA.