Intestinal microbiota in health and disease: Role of bifidobacteria in gut homeostasis

Table 1 Reviews obtained from the search into “probiotics”

Probiotics	Author's conclusions	Ref.
Treating acute infectious diarrhea	Beneficial effects	[109]
Prevention of pediatric antibiotic associated diarrhea	Evidence of a protective effect	[110]
Treating persistent diarrhea in children	Limited evidence	[111]
Treatment of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile)-associated colitis in adults	Insufficient evidence	[112]
Prevention of C. difficile-associated diarrhea in adults and children	Moderate quality evidence	[113]
Prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants	Prevents severe necrotizing enterocolitis	[114]
Induction of remission in ulcerative colitis	Limited evidence	[115]
Treatment and prevention of pouchitis after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis for chronic ulcerative colitis	Probiotic VSL#3 was more effective than placebo	[116]
Maintenance of remission in ulcerative colitis	Insufficient evidence	[117]
Maintenance of remission in Crohn's disease	No evidence	[118]
Induction of remission in Crohn's disease	Insufficient evidence	[119]
Prevention of post-operative recurrence of Crohn's disease	Insufficient randomized trials	[120]
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and/or steatohepatitis	Lack of randomized clinical trials	[121]
Patients with hepatic encephalopathy	Need of efficacy demonstration	[122]
Treatment of bacterial vaginosis	No sufficient evidence	[123]
Preventing preterm labour	Insufficient data	[124]
For prevention of allergic disease and food hypersensitivity (in infants)	Insufficient evidence	[125]
Treating eczema	No effective treatment	[126]
Preventing acute upper respiratory tract infections	Limited evidence	[127]

Reviews obtained from the search into “probiotics” in the Cochrane Library (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/cochranelibrary/search) of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews journal.

Table 2 Some Bifidobacterium strains tested in human intervention studies showing positive effects on gastrointestinal functions

Bifido species	Bifido strain	Other species	Reported effect	Ref.
B. animalis subs. lactis	Bb12	+ S. thermophilus	Antibiotic associated diarrhoea–children	[129]
		No	Prevent infection in child care centres	[130]
		+ L. rhamnosus (GG and Lc705), P. freudenreichii ssp. shermani JS	Alleviate symptoms of IBS	[131]
	DN-173010	+ S. thermophilus, L. delbureckii subsp. bulgaricus, L. lactis (= fermented milk)	Improve symptoms of IBS	[132,133]
			Improve GI well-being in women with minor digestive symptoms	[134,135]
			Affect brain activity (emotion and sensation) in healthy women	[136]
	HN019	No	Improve functional GI symptoms in adults	[137]
B. bifidum	NCDO 1453	+ L. acidophilus NCDO 1748	Prevent NEC in very low birth weight preterm infants	[138]
B. breve	Bb99	+ L. rhamnosus (GG and Lc705), P. freudenreichii ssp. shermani JS	Alleviate symptoms of IBS	[139]
	Yakult	+ prebiotic GOS	Improve clinical conditions of patients with UC	[140]
		+ L. casei Shirota	Improve symptoms and decrease H2 production in lactose-intolerant patients	[141]
B. infantis	35624	No	Alleviate symptoms of IBS	[142]
		No	Relive symptoms of IBS in woman	[143]
		No	Reduce systemic pro-inflammatory biomarkers in GI and no-GI conditions	[144]
Infloran® (B. infantis)	Unknown	+ L. acidophilus	Prevent NEC in very low birth weight preterm infants	[145]
ABC Dophilus (B. infantis, B. bifidus)	Unknown	+ S. thermophilus	Prevent NEC in very low birth weight neonates	[146]
VSL#3® (B. breve, B. infantis, B. longum)	Unknown	+ S. thermophilus, L. acidophilus, L. plantarum, L. paracasei, L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus	Remission of UC in children	[147]
			Ameliorate symptoms in children with IBS	[148]
			Reduce symptoms in mild to moderate UC patients	[149,150]
			Maintain remission in recurrent or refractory pouchitis	[151,152]
			Reduce the pouchitis activity index in IPAA patients	[153]
			Reduce the incidence of AAD in risk hospital inpatients	[154]

AAD: Antibiotic associated diarrhoea; GI: Gastrointestinal; IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome; IPAA: Ileal pouch anal anastomosis; NEC: Necrotizing enterocolitis; UC: Ulcerative colitis; S. thermophilus: Streptococcus thermophilus; L. rhamnosus: Lactobacillus rhamnosus; L. delbureckii: Lactobacillus delbrueckii; L. lactis: Lactococcus lactis; L. acidophilus: Lactobacillus acidophilus; L. casei: Lactobacillus casei; L. plantarum: Lactobacillus plantarum; L. paracasei: Lactobacillus paracasei; P. freudenreichii: Propionibacterium freudenreichii; B. animalis: Bifidobacterium animalis; B. bifidum: Bifidobacterium bifidum; B. breve: Bifidobacterium breve; B. infantis: Bifidobacterium infantis; B. longum: Bifidobacterium longum.