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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2001, p. 3819-3823, Vol. 67, No. 9
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.9.3819-3823.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Fate and Dissemination of Bacillus subtilis Spores in a Murine Model

Tran Thu Hoa,1 Le Hong Duc,2 Rachele Isticato,3 Loredana Baccigalupi,3 Ezio Ricca,3 Pham Hung Van,1 and Simon M. Cutting2,*

Laboratory of Microbiology, Ho Chi Minh University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam1; School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom2; and Section of Microbiology, Department of General and Environmental Physiology, University Federico II, 80134 Naples, Italy3

Received 27 February 2001/Accepted 27 May 2001

Bacterial spores are being consumed as probiotics, although little is known about their efficacy or mode of action. As a first step in characterizing spore probiotics, we have studied the persistence and dissemination of Bacillus subtilis spores given orally to mice. Our results have shown that spores do not appear to disseminate across the mucosal surfaces. However, we found that the number of spores excreted in the feces of mice was, in some experiments, larger than the original inoculum. This was an intriguing result and might be explained by germination of a proportion of the spore inoculum in the intestinal tract, followed by limited rounds of cell growth and then sporulation again. This result raises the interesting question of whether it is the spore or the germinated spore that contributes to the probiotic effect of bacterial spores.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom. Phone: 44-1784-443760. Fax: 44-1784-434326. E-mail: s.cutting{at}rhul.ac.uk.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2001, p. 3819-3823, Vol. 67, No. 9
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.9.3819-3823.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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