Browsing by Subject "suoliston mikrobisto"

The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of two different probiotics on intestinal microbiota and secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) in healthy, well-trained adults from Canberra, Australia. Master thesis work was performed as a part of a clinical, placebo-controlled double-blind test, which aimed to investigate the ability of probiotics to improve immunity and reduce the risk of respiratory tract infections in above-mentioned group. Also research aimed to find out the possible correlation between health effects, changes in intestinal microbiota and sIgA. A hypothesis of this work is that amounts of probiotic L. acidophilus NCFM, B. lactis Bi-07, B. lactis Bl-04 strains, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus species will arise during intervention in groups using probiotics. A number of potentially pathogenic Clostridium cluster XIVab and Enterococcus species will decrease, whereas amounts of secretory IgA will supposedly grow towards the end of intervention. The total number of intestinal bacteria will presumably remain relatively stable. Totally 450 subjects participated in the study and 120 of them gave samples for microbiological and immunological analyses of this work. Intervention was performed in winter season and continued for 150 days. Flow cytometry was used to investigate the total number of intestinal bacteria and quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to investigate the changes in intestinal microbiota respectively. Sandwich-ELISA was used study changes in sIgA concentrations. The total number of intestinal bacteria was typical for the large intestine and remained stable between time-points. The changes in amounts of sIgA and intestinal bacterial groups weren’t statistically significant in any group. The numbers of bacterial groups studied by qPCRmethod were also normal. Although the results for intestinal microbiota and secretory IgA weren’t statistically significant, a clinical part associated with this research showed that both probiotics reduced the frequency of lower respiratory tract infections and use of medicines. However, B. lactis Bl-04 strain was more effective in preventing upper respiratory tract infections in studied population. Intestinal microbiota and secretory IgA weren’t probably important parameters in the assessment of probiotic effects on respiratory tract infections in healthy, well-trained adults. The reliability of results for this work could be improved by adding the number of subjects and time-points.