Isolation of immune-regulatory Tetragenococcus halophilus from miso

PLoS One. 2018 Dec 26;13(12):e0208821. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208821. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Tetragenococcus halophilus is a halophilic lactic acid bacterium that exists in the traditional Japanese seasoning miso-a fermented soy paste. Considering the popularity of miso as a component of healthy diet, we attempted to evaluate the immunoregulatory functions of T. halophilus spices isolated from miso. We screened 56 strains that facilitated the upregulation of activation markers such as CD86 and CD69 on B cells and T cells in vitro. Of these, 7 strains (Nos. 1, 3, 13, 15, 19, 30, and 31) were found to preferentially induce the CD86 expression on B cells. Furthermore, DNA microarray analysis revealed that T. halophilus strain No. 1 significantly augmented the gene expressions of CD86, CD70, IL-10, INF-γ, and IL-22 in B cells. We confirmed these results at the protein level by flow cytometry. Mice feeding diet containing 1% T. halophilus No. 1 exhibited significantly greater IgA production in the serum. Furthermore, a diet containing 1% T. halophilus No. 1 augmented ovoalbumin (OVA)-specific IgG titer in mice upon OVA/alum immunization. Thus, we demonstrated that T. halophilus No. 1 is a strong immunomodulatory strain with potential as a probiotic.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • B-Lymphocytes / metabolism
  • B-Lymphocytes / microbiology*
  • Cytokines / metabolism
  • Enterococcaceae / isolation & purification*
  • Food Microbiology
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Mice
  • Soy Foods / microbiology*
  • T-Lymphocytes / metabolism
  • T-Lymphocytes / microbiology*

Substances

  • Cytokines

Grants and funding

This study was partly funded by ICHIBIKI Co Ltd. The funder provided the source. This work was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and the Canon Foundation (to T.A.). This funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.