Abstract
Infectious diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Nutritional interventions may enhance resistance to infectious diseases or help to reduce clinical symptoms. Here, we investigated whether a whey protein concentrate (WPC) could decrease diarrheagenic Escherichia coli-induced changes in reported stool frequency and gastrointestinal complaints in a double-blind, parallel 4-week intervention study. Subjects were randomly assigned to a whey hydrolysate placebo group, a low-dose WPC group or a high-dose WPC group. After 2 weeks of consumption, subjects (n = 121) were orally infected with a high dose of live but attenuated diarrheagenic E. coli (strain E1392/75-2A; 1E10 colony-forming units). Subjects recorded information on stool consistency and the frequency and severity of symptoms in an online diary. The primary outcome parameters were a change in stool frequency (stools per day) and a change in Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) diarrhea score between the first and second days after infection. Neither dose of the whey protein concentrate in the dietary treatment affected the E. coli-induced increase in stool frequency or GSRS diarrhea score compared to placebo treatment. The composition of the microbiota shifted between the start of the study and after two weeks of consumption of the products, but no differences between the intervention groups were observed, possibly due to dietary guidelines that subjects had to adhere to during the study. In conclusion, consumption of the whey protein concentrate by healthy adults did not reduce diarrhea scores in an E. coli infection model compared to a whey hydrolysate placebo control.
Highlights
Diarrheal disease is a common cause of illness and death worldwide, especially in children under 5 years of age [1]
121 healthy male human subjects who fulfilled all inclusion criteria and none of the exclusion criteria were included in the study
The results presented here are for the per protocol (PP) population
Summary
Diarrheal disease is a common cause of illness and death worldwide, especially in children under 5 years of age [1]. Dairy ingredients have been shown to affect infectious diseases in preclinical studies as well as in in vivo intervention trials [5,6]. Both native whey components, such as bovine immunoglobulins (reviewed in [5]) and lactoferrin (reviewed in [7]), and milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) components (reviewed in [6,8]), such as phospholipids and MFGM proteins, may contribute to these effects. With respect to the MFGM type of products, some [9–12] but not all [13,14] studies have shown a reduced incidence of infectious outcomes of interventions for infants [9–11,14] and children [13]. Another study did find that febrile episodes decreased, suggesting an immune-modulating effect [13]
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