Abstract
The anti-inflammatory potential of eight indigenous probiotic Lactobacillus isolates was evaluated in vitro in terms of modulating the expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in human acute monocytic leukemia (THP-1) cells under inflammatory conditions. Amongst these, Lactobacillus plantarum Lp91 was the most potent anti-inflammatory strain as it evoked a significant (P < 0.001) down-regulation of TNF-α by -1.45-fold relative to the control in THP-1 cells. However, in terms of IL-6 expression, all the strains could up-regulate its expression considerably at different levels. Hence, based on in vitro expression of TNF-α, Lp91 was selected for in vivo study in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse model to look at the expression of TNF-α, IL-6, monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) and E-selectin in mouse aorta. In LPS challenged (2 h) mice group fed with Lp91 for 10 days, TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, VCAM-1, ICAM-1 and E-selectin expressions were significantly down-regulated by 3.10-, 10.02-, 4.22-, -3.14-, 2.28- and 5.71-fold relative to control conditions. In conclusion, Lp91 could serve as a candidate probiotic strain to explore it as a possible biotherapeutic anti-inflammatory agent against inflammatory diseases including cardiovascular disease.