Effect of oral administration of lyophilized bifidobacteria strains isolated from breast milk to women suffering mastitits.

GARCÍA SERRANO, E. ; RODRÍGUEZ, JM; JIMÉNEZ, E; TERÁN, V; VAN NIEUWENHOVE C,; J. FONTECHA

Simposio; V Simposio Internacional de Bacterias lácticas; 2016

CERELA

The microbiota present in human milk plays a crucial role in maintaining health of the mother and child, being a complex of microorganisms that depends on many factors. Bifidobacteria and lactic acid bacteria present in human milk have beneficial health properties for mother-child pair. Mammary bacterial dysbiosis can produce problems as mastitis (acute, subacute or subclinical) and painful breastfeeding, a process characterized by the increase of potential pathogens, at the expense of the normal mammary microbiota. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of oral administration of two bifidobacteria strains isolated from human milk, in 18 voluntary women with infectious mastitis (staphylococcal mastitis) from the Hospital de la Paz (Madrid- Spain). The volunteers were randomly divided into two groups and treated with daily oral administration of one bifidobacteria strain during 21 days (B. animalis subsp. lactis INL2 or B. breve UCM5). Both strains were previously lyophilized and were then daily administered in a dose of 108 UFC/ml. Breast milk samples were weekly collected from both breasts for microbiological counting by plating serial dilutions in the appropriate culture media. The evaluation of fatty acid profile was determined by gaseous chromatography. The main outcome of this study was a significant decrease of pathogenic microorganisms, mainly of S. aureus, S. epidermidis and St. salivarius and less breast pain in most treated women. Although both groups showed a significant decrease in the count of pathogens during treatment, UCM5 group reached a 70% of reduction of pathogens throughout the entire treatment, while volunteers that were treated with INL2 strain showed a decrease of 50% in the microbiological count of main infectious agents. Fatty acid profiles showed variations between women and even variations between both breasts of each volunteer. All participants considered to present a great decrease in breast pain during the first two weeks of treatment. We conclude that both bifidobacteria strains tested in this study result a promising strategy in the treatment of mastitis through its probiotic administration, and in reducing the painful breastfeeding with high efficiency.