Lactic acid bacteria mitigated the effects of heart attack
Russian scientists have found out that "useful" lactic acid bacteria markedly mitigate the consequences of a heart attack in rats. The effect is explained by positive changes in blood composition and intestinal barrier function.
The health of each of us is highly dependent on the microbes that inhabit our body, mainly the intestines. The microbial community of the gastrointestinal tract (primarily bacteria) provides food processing, vitamin synthesis and, of course, the body's immune defence.
The importance of the microbiome and the prospects of influencing it for the purpose of treatment are obvious, but have not yet been sufficiently studied. A great contribution to this issue has been made by Russian scientists, who have just established that lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis) can even mitigate the effects of a heart attack.
The object of the study was laboratory rats with microbiome disorders. In part of the rodents they were caused by a course of antibiotics, in another part it was associated with obesity. Animals of the third group received chemical preparations that provoke intestinal inflammation. In the third, the digestive system is poorly insulated from the surrounding body cavity, which can cause microbes and the toxic compounds they secrete (such as fragments of the outer protective shell) to escape.
This causes digestive and immune problems in rats and can lead to severe systemic inflammation. Among the possible complications is even a heart attack, i.e. destruction of a part of the heart muscle (necrosis) caused by serious disturbances in the blood supply.
However, in this case, infarction in rodents was induced artificially. For this purpose, a part of the heart was subjected to ischaemia (blood supply disturbance) with subsequent restoration of blood flow (reperfusion). As a control group were used rats that were not subjected to experiments, had a normal microbiome and did not receive probiotics.
It turned out that after 15 days of bacterial preparations, the size of the damaged part of the heart of rats with experimental infarction decreased - on average by ten per cent, compared to the control.
The authors explain this beneficial effect of probiotics on the heart (seemingly unrelated to digestion) by changes in blood composition. There were fewer cytokines - factors that stimulate the inflammatory response and can lead to the death of muscle cells (myocytes) of the heart.
In addition, there were fewer lipopolysaccharides in the blood of rats on probiotics - this indicates healing of intestinal tissues, normalisation of its barrier function and, of course, improvement of microflora.
"Evolutionarily adapted probiotic microorganisms have a vital interest in maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship with their host. It is likely that through the fine regulation of pro- and anti-inflammatory signalling molecules that are out of balance during systemic inflammation, probiotic bacteria protect cardiac muscle cells from both toxic damage and the effects of oxygen deprivation. Our results allow us to start selecting probiotics for cardiac patients, as well as functional food products with therapeutic and preventive properties", - explained one of the authors of the new article Mikhail Galagudza, director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Almazov National Medical Research Centre.
It is possible that one day, based on these results, cardiological patients will be recommended to indulge in lactic acid products and preparations of live bacteria.