AIMS Probiotic milk-based formulations were spray-dried with various combinations of prebiotic substances in an effort to generate synbiotic powder products. METHODS AND RESULTS To examine the effect of growth phase and inclusion of a prebiotic substance in the feed media on probiotic viability during spray-drying, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG was spray-dried in lag, early log and stationary ph...

A number of methods have been developed to measure platelet-associated lgG (PAIgG). The antiglobulin consumption assay directly quantitates lgG on the platelet and is sensitive and specific. A fluorescent anti-lgG assay has recently been described and has the advantage of simplicity. We compared the results of these two PAIgG assays in immune and nonimmune thrombocytopenia and nonthrombocytopen...

The objective of this study was to explore the expression and the clinical and prognostic significance of high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) in human gliomas. The expression of HMGB1 in 15 samples of normal brain tissue and 65 samples of different-grade glioma tissue was assayed using immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis. The associations between the differences in expression and patho...

Understanding how tumors develop resistance to chemotherapy is a major issue in oncology. When treated with temozolomide (TMZ), an oral alkylating chemotherapy drug, most low-grade gliomas (LGG) show an initial volume decrease but this effect is rarely long lasting. In addition, it has been suggested that TMZ may drive tumor progression in a subset of patients as a result of acquired resistance...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether eating Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) in the form of commercially available yoghurt improves clearance of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). DESIGN Double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. SETTING Renal ward of Austin Health, a tertiary hospital, Feb-Oct 2005. PARTICIPANTS 27 VRE-positive patients, 14 receiving active treatment and 13 contr...

The interaction between two Fusarium mycotoxins, zearalenone (ZEN) and its derivative (')alpha-zearalenol ((')alpha-ZOL), with two food-grade strains of Lactobacillus was investigated. The mycotoxins (2 microg ml(-1)) were incubated with either Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG or L. rhamnosus strain LC705. A considerable proportion (38 to 46%) of both toxins was recovered from the bacterial pe...

The human oral microbiome has a major role in oral diseases including dental caries. Our studies on progression of caries infection through dentin and more recently, the invasion of vital dental pulp, detected Lactobacillus rhamnosus in the initial stages of infection of vital pulp tissue. In this study employing current high-throughput next generation sequencing technology we sought to obtain ...

The genomes of Lactobacillus casei/paracasei and Lactobacillus rhamnosus strains carry two genes encoding homologues of p40 and p75 from L. rhamnosus GG, two secreted proteins which display anti-apoptotic and cell protective effects on human intestinal epithelial cells. p40 and p75 carry cysteine, histidine-dependent aminohydrolase/peptidase (CHAP) and NLPC/P60 domains, respectively, which are ...

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG is a lactic acid bacterium that is widely used as probiotic products in the dairy industry. To gain insights into the genome stability of the L. rhamnosus GG in the human gastrointestinal tract and the possible adaption mechanism under different stresses, we first examined the genotype and phenotype of the L. rhamnosus GG grown over 1000 generations under various stre...

Bacterial adhesion to epithelial surfaces affects retention time in the human gastro-intestinal tract and therefore significantly contributes to interactions between bacteria and their hosts. Bacterial adhesion among other factors is strongly influenced by physico-chemical factors. The accurate quantification of these physico-chemical factors in adhesion is however limited by the available meas...