Administration of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis strain BB-12® in healthy children: characterization, functional composition, and metabolism of the gut microbiome

Carlotta Vizioli; Rosario Jaime-Lara; Scott G Daniel; Alexis Franks; Ana F Diallo; Kyle Bittinger; Tina P Tan; Daniel J Merenstein; Brianna Brooks; Paule V Joseph; Katherine A Maki

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1165771

Administration of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis strain BB-12^® in healthy children: characterization, functional composition, and metabolism of the gut microbiome

Front Microbiol. 2023 May 12:14:1165771. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1165771. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Carlotta Vizioli^{1

2}, Rosario Jaime-Lara^{2

3

4}, Scott G Daniel⁵, Alexis Franks³, Ana F Diallo⁶, Kyle Bittinger⁵, Tina P Tan⁷, Daniel J Merenstein⁷, Brianna Brooks³, Paule V Joseph^{2

3}, Katherine A Maki⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
² Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
³ Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
⁴ UCLA School of Nursing, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
⁵ Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
⁶ Family and Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing, Institute of Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation (iCubed), Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States.
⁷ Department of Family Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, United States.
⁸ Translational Biobehavioral and Health Disparities Branch, National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, United States.

Abstract

Introduction: The consumption of probiotics may influence children's gut microbiome and metabolome, which may reflect shifts in gut microbial diversity composition and metabolism. These potential changes might have a beneficial impact on health. However, there is a lack of evidence investigating the effect of probiotics on the gut microbiome and metabolome of children. We aimed to examine the potential impact of a two (Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii; S2) vs. three (S2 + Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis strain BB-12) strain-supplemented yogurt.

Methods: Included in this study were 59 participants, aged one to five years old, recruited to phase I of a double-blinded, randomized controlled trial. Fecal samples were collected at baseline, after the intervention, and at twenty days post-intervention discontinuation, and untargeted metabolomics and shotgun metagenomics were performed.

Results: Shotgun metagenomics and metabolomic analyses showed no global changes in either intervention group's gut microbiome alpha or beta diversity indices, except for a lower microbial diversity in the S2 + BB12 group at Day 30. The relative abundance of the two and three intervention bacteria increased in the S2 and S2 + BB12 groups, respectively, from Day 0 to Day 10. In the S2 + BB12 group, the abundance of several fecal metabolites increased at Day 10, including alanine, glycine, lysine, phenylalanine, serine, and valine. These fecal metabolite changes did not occur in the S2 group.

Discussion: In conclusion, there were were no significant differences in the global metagenomic or metabolomic profiles between healthy children receiving two (S2) vs. three (S2 + BB12) probiotic strains for 10 days. Nevertheless, we observed a significant increase (Day 0 to Day 10) in the relative abundance of the two and three probiotics administered in the S2 and S2 + BB12 groups, respectively, indicating the intervention had a measurable impact on the bacteria of interest in the gut microbiome. Future research using longer probiotic intervention durations and in children at risk for gastrointestinal disorders may elucidate if functional metabolite changes confer a protective gastrointestinal effect.

Keywords: B. animalis BB-12; L. delbrueckii; S. thermophilus; children; gut microbiome; metabolomics; metagenomics; probiotics.