Multi-strain probiotics combined with fruit-vegetable powders for regulating intestinal inflammation and intestinal epithelial barrier

The health-promoting effects of probiotics include maintenance of normal intestinal microbiota, increased nutritional value of foods, and immune system stimulation. Multi-strain probiotics have recently been proposed as health-enhancing foods and functional food ingredients. Fruit-vegetable powders (FVP), being a kind of prebiotic, are food supplements that are non-digestible by the host, but can improve the host's health by selectively stimulating the growth or activities of gastrointestinal tract bacteria. However, the intestinal efficacy of multi-strain probiotics combined with FVP remains unclear. Therefore, the purpose of the present work was to explore the effect of multi-strain probiotics combined with FVP on intestinal inflammation. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to treat RAW264.7, which was then co-cultured with Caco-2 cells to mimic the intestinal inflammatory environment. Caco2 cells were incubated with various probiotics and FVP (0.125 and 0.25 mg/mL). The inflammatory cytokines from the medium were collected for ELISA analysis, and the ZO-1 expression in the Caco-2 cells was examined by fluorescence assay. Probiotics combined with FVP significantly decreased the inflammatory cytokines, IL-6, and TNF-alpha, and increased ZO-1 expression when compared with the LPS only group. Probiotics combined with FVP could decrease inflammatory cytokines, and protect the intestinal barrier from tight junction dysregulation. (C) All Rights Reserved