Abstract
The skin and its microbiota serve as physical barriers to prevent invasion of pathogens. Skin damage can be a consequence of illness, surgery, and burns. The most effective wound management strategy is to prevent infections, promote healing, and prevent excess scarring. It is well established that probiotics can aid in skin healing by stimulating the production of immune cells, and they also exhibit antagonistic effects against pathogens via competitive exclusion of pathogens. Our aim was to conduct a review of recent literature on the efficacy of using probiotics against pathogens that cause wound infections. In this integrative review, we searched through the literature published in the international following databases: PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus using the search terms “probiotic” AND “wound infection.” During a comprehensive review and critique of the selected research, fourteen in vitro studies, 8 animal studies, and 19 clinical studies were found. Two of these in vitro studies also included animal studies, yielding a total of 39 articles for inclusion in the review. The most commonly used probiotics for all studies were well-known strains of the species Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus. All in vitro studies showed successful inhibition of chosen skin or wound pathogens by the selected probiotics. Within the animal studies on mice, rats, and rabbits, probiotics showed strong opportunities for counteracting wound infections. Most clinical studies showed slight or statistically significant lower incidence of surgical site infections, foot ulcer infection, or burn infections for patients using probiotics. Several of these studies also indicated a statistically significant wound healing effect for the probiotic groups. This review indicates that exogenous and oral application of probiotics has shown reduction in wound infections, especially when used as an adjuvant to antibiotic therapy, and therefore the potential use of probiotics in this field remains worthy of further studies, perhaps focused more on typical skin inhabitants as next-generation probiotics with high potential.
Highlights
According to the current definition, “probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health effect on the host.” Both the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP), have developed and endorsed this definition of probiotics [1,2,3]. e most common probiotics are membersBioMed Research International of the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium genera (e.g., Bifidobacterium infantis, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis, and Bifidobacterium longum)
Most clinical studies showed slight or statistically significant lower incidence of surgical site infections, foot ulcer infection, or burn infections for patients using probiotics. Several of these studies indicated a statistically significant wound healing effect for the probiotic groups. is review indicates that exogenous and oral application of probiotics has shown reduction in wound infections, especially when used as an adjuvant to antibiotic therapy, and the potential use of probiotics in this field remains worthy of further studies, perhaps focused more on typical skin inhabitants as next-generation probiotics with high potential
Inclusion criteria were as follows: available full text and use of oral or topical probiotics for treating wound infections, live cultures associated with fermented foods, such as kefir and yogurt, were not included as these do not qualify as probiotics
Summary
According to the current definition, “probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health effect on the host.” Both the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP), have developed and endorsed this definition of probiotics [1,2,3]. e most common probiotics are membersBioMed Research International of the Lactobacillus (e.g., including but not limited to strains of the following species: Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei, and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus) and Bifidobacterium genera (e.g., Bifidobacterium infantis, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis, and Bifidobacterium longum). According to the current definition, “probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health effect on the host.”. Both the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP), have developed and endorsed this definition of probiotics [1,2,3]. Strains from other bacterial species (e.g., Propionibacterium acidilactici, Lactococcus lactis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecium, Streptococcus thermophilus, and Escherichia coli) and certain yeasts (e.g., Saccharomyces boulardii) qualify as probiotics [4]. Revolutionary discoveries about the importance of the human microbiome for human health have accelerated further development of the probiotic sector. Scientific evidence of probiotic benefits on human health is continuously expanding, and there are enough data to justify investigation of probiotics for treatment or prevention of several disorders from antibiotic and Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea, irritable bowel syndrome, and inflammatory bowel disease to anxiety, depression, and wound healing [9,10,11,12]
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