Abstract
Probiotics are live bacteria, generally administered in food, conferring beneficial effects to the host because they help to prevent or treat diseases, the majority of which are gastrointestinal. Numerous investigations have verified the beneficial effect of probiotic strains in biofilm form, including increased resistance to temperature, gastric pH and mechanical forces to that of their planktonic counterparts. In addition, the development of new encapsulation technologies, which have exploited the properties of biofilms in the creation of double coated capsules, has given origin to fourth generation probiotics. Up to now, reviews have focused on the detrimental effects of biofilms associated with pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, this work aims to amalgamate information describing the biofilms of Lactobacillus strains which are used as probiotics, particularly L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum, L. reuteri, and L. fermentum. Additionally, we have reviewed the development of probiotics using technology inspired by biofilms.
Highlights
Probiotic bacteria are defined as “live microorganisms which, when administered to a host in adequate amounts, confer them health benefits” [1]
The capacity of Lactobacillus to form biofilms on abiotic surfaces has been studied during the last years, and the results indicate that only some strains have this property [40,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53]
Numerous studies have demonstrated that biofilm formation by Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) is a beneficial property because it promotes colonization and a longer permanence of LAB in the mucosa of the host
Summary
Probiotic bacteria are defined as “live microorganisms which, when administered to a host in adequate amounts, confer them health benefits” [1]. Efforts have been devoted to innovate in the process of encapsulation, aiming to surpass the current limitations with planktonic bacteria to begin a fourth generation of probiotics using bacterial biofilms with a double coating and conferring beneficial features to the capsules. This could include protection against the pH of the stomach or to lyophilization [10]. This review outlines the basic concept of probiotic use as an alternative therapy to treat gastrointestinal diseases; subsequently focusing on the capacity of probiotics to form biofilms and on the advancements of encapsulation techniques of the fourth generation (biofilms), a concept that has arisen only a couple of years ago
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