INVESTIGADORES
ALVAREZ Gladis Susana
artículos
Título:
Yoghurt accelerates the recovery of defence mechanisms against Streptococcus
Autor/es:
VILLENA JULIO; RACEDO SILVIA; AGÜERO GRACIELA; ALVAREZ SUSANA
Revista:
BRITISH JOURNAL OF NUTRITION
Editorial:
CABI Publishing-Nutrition Society
Referencias:
Lugar: London.; Año: 2006 vol. 95 p. 591 - 602
ISSN:
0007-1145
Resumen:
Experiments studied the effect of yogurt on the recovery of defence mechanisms against Streptococcus pneumoniae respiratory infection in malnourished mice. Weaned mice were malnourished with a protein free diet (PFD) for 21d. Malnourished mice were replete with balanced diet (BD), yogurt (Y) or BD with supplemental yogurt (BD+Y) for 7, 14 or 21d. The normal control group (NC) was fed BD whereas malnourished control mice (MC) consumed only PFD. Mice were challenged with pneumococci at the end of each dietary treatment. MC mice showed increased susceptibility to pneumococcal infection. Blood leukocytes, phagocytes activity and serum and bronco-alveolar anti-pneumococcal IgG and IgA were significantly lower in the MC than in the NC group. Repletion of malnourished mice with BD for 21d was necessary to obtain a response to infection similar to that of NC mice; however, administration of BC+Y for 14d was enough to normalize the immune defence mechanisms. Histological examination of MC lungs showed progressive loss of alveolar architecture. Lung injuries were significantly less pronounced in NC mice.  Mice treated with 14BD+Y showed histological signs similar to the NC group. This study showed that administration of yogurt to malnourished mice induced an early recovery of the immunological parameters studied. Despite the uncertainties about the mechanisms involved and about the human relevance of the effects observed in animal models, our study provide a strong rationale for the hypothesis that yogurt consumption by malnourished hosts will accelerate the recovery of the immune mechanisms involved in the protection against respiratory infections