Yes, another one of those 😉

“Probiotics help .. .. “

In this instance it is about spinal cord injury (of all injuries!)

Spinal cord injury is the injury that is caused by a sudden blow to the spine that results in fraction or dislocation of the vertebrae. As a result the signals that are being transmitted from the brain to the rest of the body may be interrupted. Depending on the location and severity of the injury, the individual will be able to recover mostly to fully or remain paralyzed in at least part of the body.

Aside from the psychological stress of the patient who suddenly has to cope with an inability to function as before (which may last longer than expected), there are also a number of physiological consequences such as e.g. impaired bladder and bowel function due to a impairment in the signal transmission from the brain to the those organs or impaired immune function (which then requires more antibiotic treatment to fight the same infection).

A study done by Kigerl et al now found that gut microbial flora is also affected by spinal cord injury. After injury, bacterial translocated to extra-intestinal organs (such as mesenteric lymph nodes, liver, spleen, kidney, and blood) compared to mice without injury. Injury also increased gut permeability increased by 20%, reduced the number and types of bacterial colonies cultivated from the feces, and triggered an immune response in the GALT (Gut-associated lymphoid tissue; which houses about 70% of the immune system’s cells).

Using mice in whom the microbial flora was depleted by antibiotics or mice treated with a commercially available probiotic (VSL#3: Streptococcus thermophilus, Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium infantis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus paracasei, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. Average CFU = 15.5 billion vs average 4.3), they found that mice that had had a probiotic ‘top-up’ recovered better from the injury than mice who hadn’t or than mice who had received antibiotics (the latter fared worse). More specifiaclly,  administration of antibiotics enhanced locomotor activity and an antiinflammatory immune phenotype in the GALT, which, according to the authors supports a therapeutic role for probiotic agents after spinal cord injury.