Probiotics can be processed into a powder, tablet, or capsule form for easy intake. They are exposed to frequent stresses not only during complex processing steps, but also in the human body after intake. For this reason, various coating agents that promote probiotic bacterial stability in the intestinal environment have been developed. Silk fibroin (SF) is a material used in a variety of fields from drug delivery systems to enzyme immobilization and has potential as a coating agent for probiotics. In this study, we investigated this potential by coating probiotic strains with 0.1% or 1% water-soluble calcium (WSC), 1% SF, and 10% trehalose. Under simulated gastrointestinal conditions, cell viability, cell surface hydrophobicity, and cell adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells were then measured. The survival ratio after freeze-drying was highest upon addition of 0.1% WSC. The probiotic bacteria coated with SF showed improved survival by more than 10.0% under simulated gastric conditions and 4.8% under simulated intestinal conditions. Moreover, the cell adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells was elevated by 1.0-36.0%. Our results indicate that SF has positive effects on enhancing the survival and adhesion capacity of bacterial strains under environmental stresses, thus demonstrating its potential as a suitable coating agent to stabilize probiotics throughout processing, packaging, storage and consumption.
Keywords: Probiotics; freeze drying; intestinal cell adhesion; silk fibroin coating.