Abstract
Lactic acid bacteria can have beneficial health effects and be used for the treatment of various diseases. However, there remains the challenge of encapsulating probiotics into delivery systems with a high viability and encapsulation efficacy. The electrospinning of bacteria is a novel and little-studied method, and further investigation of its promising potential is needed. Here, the morphology, zeta potential, hydrophobicity, average cell mass, and growth characteristics of nine different species of Lactobacillus and one of Lactococcus are characterized. The electrospinning of polymer solutions containing ~10 log colony forming units (CFU)/mL lactic acid bacteria enabled the successful incorporation of all bacterial species tested, from the smallest (0.74 µm; Lactococcus lactis) to the largest (10.82 µm; Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus), into poly(ethylene oxide) nanofibers with an average diameter of ~100 nm. All of these lactobacilli were viable after incorporation into nanofibers, with 0 to 3 log CFU/mg loss in viability, depending on the species. Viability correlated with the hydrophobicity and extreme length of lactic acid bacteria, whereas a horizonal or vertical electrospinning set-up did not have any role. Therefore, electrospinning represents a promising method for the incorporation of lactic acid bacteria into solid delivery systems, while drying the bacterial dispersion at the same time.
Highlights
Probiotics are living microbes that have beneficial health effects when administered to a host in a sufficient quantity
Despite the wealth of information on lactic acid bacteria available, studies that compare physical properties and growth characteristics of multiple lactic acid bacteria are scarce; these were determined in the present study for the selected pool of lactobacilli and L. lactis (Table 2, Figure 1)
We incorporated a range of safe lactic acid bacteria into poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based nanofibers, several of which are confirmed probiotics
Summary
Probiotics are living microbes that have beneficial health effects when administered to a host in a sufficient quantity They most often belong to the very diverse genus of Lactobacillus, which includes a large number of species with a “generally recognized as safe” or “qualified presumption of safety” status [1,2]. In 2015, 175 genomes of lactobacilli were included in a comparative taxonomic study [2] These are non-spore-forming rods or coccobacilli that are characterized by low genomic guanine and cytosine contents, the production of lactic acid, and complex nutritional requirements. They are aero-tolerant or anaerobic, aciduric, or acidophilic [1]. They have been tested in several clinical trials to evaluate their efficiency for the treatment of a wide spectrum of diseases [1,3]
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