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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 2009, p. 381-386, Vol. 75, No. 2
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.01731-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

EA 3199, Laboratoire de Biologie, CNAM, 2 rue Conté, 75003 Paris, France
Received 28 July 2008/ Accepted 14 November 2008
In the luminal contents of metronidazole-treated rats, there was a dominant Bifidobacterium species. A strain has been isolated, its 16S rRNA gene has been sequenced, and the strain has been named Bifidobacterium pseudolongum strain Patronus. In this study, using an experimental model of healthy rats, the effects of metronidazole treatment and B. pseudolongum strain Patronus administration on the luminal and mucosa-associated microbiota and on gut oxidation processes were investigated. Metronidazole treatment and the daily gavage of rats with B. pseudolongum strain Patronus increased the numbers of bifidobacteria in cecal contents and in cecal mucosa-associated microbiota compared with those in control rats. Metronidazole reduced the colonic oxidative damage to proteins. This is the first evidence that B. pseudolongum strain Patronus exerts an effect on a biomarker of oxidative damage by reducing the susceptibility to oxidation of proteins in the colon and the small bowel. Antioxidant effects of metronidazole could be linked to the bifidobacterial increase but also to other bacterial modifications.
Published ahead of print on 21 November 2008.
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