The inhibitory activity of Lactobacillus spp. isolated from breast milk on gastrointestinal pathogenic bacteria of nosocomial origin

Abstract

Milk acts as a mean for transporting many essential substances from the mother to the child. In human beings, milk includes several predominant bacteria, such as staphylococci, streptococci, micrococci, lactobacilli, enterococci, lactococci and bifidobacteria. Besides, its intake favors the predominance of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli in the child's intestinal microbiota. The present work explores the isolation and selection of lactobacilli strains with probiotic potential, focusing in their degree of hydrophobicity and antagonism against important gastrointestinal nosocomial pathogens. 98 lactobacilli were isolated from 48 breast milk samples, with most strains belonging to the obligately homofermentative group (36.7%). 63% of the isolated strains showed a high degree of hydrophobicity when tested on three solvents and were selected for detecting antimicrobial activity against gastrointestinal pathogens, including Escherichia coli, Shigella spp, Pseudomonas spp and Salmonella spp strains. When applying the agar diffusion test, many isolated strains presented inhibitory activity against pathogenic strains. We observed that: Salmonella enteriditis was the most inhibited pathogen, and the strains with the most inhibitory power were AR2 and O1 (both highly hydrophobic lactic acid bacteria), which showed an opposing effect against all nosocomial pathogens tested. Although more in vitro, in vivo or clinical data would be needed before any conclusion on the probiotic properties of the strains can be drawn, our results demonstrate that some of the tested strains may have good probiotic potential for their inclusion in products targeting infants.