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Review
. 2017 Jun;5(3):10.1128/microbiolspec.bad-0010-2016.
doi: 10.1128/microbiolspec.BAD-0010-2016.

Bifidobacteria and Their Health-Promoting Effects

Claudio Hidalgo-Cantabrana  1 , Susana Delgado  1 , Lorena Ruiz  1 , Patricia Ruas-Madiedo  1 , Borja Sánchez  1 , Abelardo Margolles  1
Affiliations
Review

Bifidobacteria and Their Health-Promoting Effects

Claudio Hidalgo-Cantabrana et al. Microbiol Spectr. 2017 Jun.

Abstract

Bifidobacteria are members of the intestinal microbiota of mammals and other animals, and some strains are able to exert health-promoting effects. The genus Bifidobacterium belongs to the Actinobacteria phylum. Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria constitute the most abundant phyla in the human intestinal microbiota, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes being predominant in adults, and Actinobacteria in breast-fed infants, where bifidobacteria can reach levels higher than 90% of the total bacterial population. They are among the first microbial colonizers of the intestines of newborns, and play key roles in the development of their physiology, including maturation of the immune system and use of dietary components. Indeed, some nutrients, such as human milk oligosaccharides, are important drivers of bifidobacterial development. Some Bifidobacterium strains are considered probiotic microorganisms because of their beneficial effects, and they have been included as bioactive ingredients in functional foods, mainly dairy products, as well as in food supplements and pharma products, alone, or together with, other microbes or microbial substrates. Well-documented scientific evidence of their activities is currently available for bifidobacteria-containing preparations in some intestinal and extraintestinal pathologies. In this review, we focus on the role of bifidobacteria as members of the human intestinal microbiota and their use as probiotics in the prevention and treatment of disease.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Positive effects of some Bifidobacterium strains on gastrointestinal functions studied by means of human intervention studies.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Visualization of B. animalis subsp. lactis growth in skimmed milk by using confocal scanner laser microcopy. The staining method was previously reported by Ruas-Madiedo and Zoon (167); in short, two dyes, rhodamine B (which dyes proteins) and acridine orange (which dyes nucleic acids), were added to the milk at final concentration of 0.001 and 0.002%, respectively. Afterward, stained milk was inoculated (5%) and carefully placed into high-optical-quality plastic μ-Slides (Ibidi GmbH) for direct confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis. The microplates were incubated at 37°C until they reached a pH of ≤4.5, and the confocal microscope Ultra-Spectral Leica TCS AOBS SP2 (Leica Microsystems GmbH, located in the University of Oviedo facilities) was used. Bacteria dyed with acridine orange were visualized with the laser 488 nm ion argon/krypton (green), and proteins (mainly caseins) dyed with rhodamine B were visualized with the laser 543 nm He/Ne (red) but also with the laser 488 nm. Thus, after image treatment, the bacteria are visualized in green and the casein matrix in yellow (combination red and green). The oil immersion objective 63×/1.40 combined with an amplification zoom of 1.58 was directly used (×100 magnification). Microphotographs: (A) a Z-projection (thickness about 10 μm) of 10 slides of an XY-field (bar, 10 μm); (B) a slide of an XY-field (bar, 10 μm); (C) an optical zoom of a region inside the XY-field showed in B (bar, 5 μm).
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