The ProbioticBifidobacterium breveB632 Inhibited the Growth ofEnterobacteriaceaewithin Colicky Infant Microbiota Cultures
Infant colic is a common gastrointestinal disorder of newborns, mostly related to imbalances in the composition of gut microbiota and particularly to the presence of gas-producing coliforms and to lower levels of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli. Probiotics could help to contain this disturbance, with formulations consisting ofLactobacillusstrains being the most utilized. In this work, the probiotic strainBifidobacterium breveB632 that was specifically selected for its ability to inhibit gas-producing coliforms, was challenged against theEnterobacteriaceaewithin continuous cultures of microbiota from a 2-month-old colicky infant. As confirmed by RAPD-PCR fingerprinting,B. breveB632 persisted in probiotic-supplemented microbiota cultures, accounting for the 64% of Bifidobacteria at the steady state. The probiotic succeeded in inhibiting coliforms, since FISH and qPCR revealed that the amount ofEnterobacteriaceaeafter 18 h of cultivation was 0.42 and 0.44 magnitude orders lower(P<0.05)in probiotic-supplemented microbiota cultures than in the control ones. These results support the possibility to move to another level of study, that is, the administration ofB. breveB632 to a cohort of colicky newborns, in order to observe the behavior of this strainin vivoand to validate its effect in colic treatment.