F Guarner

..bulgaricus) improves lactose digestion and eliminates symptoms of lactose intolerance. Thus, these cultures clearly fulfil the current concept of probiotics...

..Preliminary clinical trials with probiotics in IBD are encouraging. Probiotics offer a valuable tool for the prevention and control of inflammatory bowel diseases...

..This review discusses the possible role of a microbial imbalance in the pathophysiology of inflammatory bowel disease...

..On the other hand, there is evidence implicating the gut flora in certain pathological conditions, including multisystem organ failure, colon cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases...

..Prebiotics may increase colonization by lactobacilli and can prevent mucosal inflammation. Modulation of the gut flora with probiotics may prove useful in the prevention and control of inflammatory bowel diseases...

..Nevertheless, bacteria are also useful in promotion of human health. Probiotics and prebiotics are known to have a role in prevention or treatment of some diseases...

..The use of probiotics, prebiotics, helminths or microbe-derived immunoregulatory vaccines might, therefore, become a valuable approach to disease prevention...

..Inulin and oligofructose may offer an opportunity to prevent chronic inflammatory intestinal disorders, and this potential should be tested in further clinical studies...

..However, certain probiotic strains are able to downregulate inflammatory pathways. Restoring the microbial balance with prebiotics and probiotics offers promise for the control of IBD...

..In conclusion, PDE4 inhibition by rolipram markedly ameliorates the course of chronic colitis and it is superior to methylprednisolone in preventing late collagen deposition...

..CONCLUSIONS: Although phenantroline did not modify the activity of inflammatory mediators, this compound substantially reduced intestinal injury associated with tissue remodelling...

..05). However, inulin or butyrate enemas had no effect. CONCLUSIONS: Oral inulin reduces the severity of dextran sodium sulfate colitis. The effect seems to be mediated by modification of the intracolonic milieu...

..Inulin and oligofructose promote selective growth of saccharolytic bacteria with low inflammatory potential...

..Altered intestinal permeability is a key pathogenetic factor of idiopathic bowel inflammation. We investigated in the rat if changes in the composition of the bowel flora can alter colonic permeability...

..Bacterial communities colonising the mucosa can modify inflammatory responses to luminal challenges...

..However, we do not dispose of validated criteria to determine the questionnaire's scoring threshold that has to be reached in order to be able to assert that the patients' quality of life has normalized...

..None of the bacteria induced changes in non-inflamed mucosa. CONCLUSIONS: Probiotics interact with immunocompetent cells using the mucosal interface and modulate locally the production of proinflammatory cytokines...

..These data suggest that EGF increases duodenal resistance to luminal acid via stimulation of mucosal zwitterionic phospholipids...

..Acute intestinal toxicity is a frequent complication that may lead to interruption of treatment in patients undergoing pelvic radiotherapy. Reliable, non-invasive biological markers to evidence their severity are not yet available...

..A scarcely studied variable is the effect of colonic anatomical integrity on H(2) excretion in breath...

..These findings support the existence of a key L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway regulating gall bladder contraction...

..Each statement has been sustained with the most relevant scientific aspects that were discussed during the Workshop and the following evaluation of the report by all experts who approved and signed it...

..coli increased IL-10 release in the presence of neutralizing anti-TNFalpha. CONCLUSIONS: Nonpathogenic bacteria interact with human intestinal mucosa and can induce changes in cytokine production that are strain specific...

..g. change in antibody in blood or response to antigens. determining the incidence and severity of infection in target populations during naturally occurring episodes or in response to attenuated pathogens...

..Finally, inulin and oligofructose have proven useful to prevent mucosal inflammatory disorders in animal models and in patients with inflammatory bowel disease...

..Encouraging results have been obtained in preliminary clinical trials...

..Brief conclusions from these discussion groups are summarized in this paper...

..We hypothesized that Bacteroides fragilis-produced metalloproteinases (MMPs) are responsible for bacterial migration through the intestinal wall and transmural inflammation...

..coli strain had no significant effect. In conclusion, L. casei reduces the number of activated T lymphocytes in the lamina propria of Crohn's disease mucosa. A balanced, local microecology may restore immune homeostasis...

..Our results suggest that constitutive isoforms of NOS prevent mast cell activation...

..In cooperation with these endogenous barriers, some in-transit bacteria, such as probiotics, can act as partners of the defense system of the intestine...

..As there is no current clinical or experimental information on the role of the gut microbiota in this pathogenesis, we conducted a pilot observational study on the fecal microbiota in patients receiving pelvic radiotherapy...

..To determine whether a probiotic drink containing Lactobacillus casei DN-114 001 reduces the incidence of radiation-induced diarrhea in patients with gynecologic cancer...

..The aim of our study was to determine whether excretion of human DNA is useful in the evaluation of disease activity in ulcerative colitis...

..casei administration did not modify VCAM-1 upregulation in colitic animals. L. casei attenuates leukocyte recruitment observed in experimental colitis induced by TNBS. This effect is possibly related to abrogation of ICAM-1 upregulation...

..We aimed to establish whether PEG 4000 affects colonic barrier function and the development of colitis induced by 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (TNBS) in rats...

..Sanitation, antibiotics and vaccines have done more to extend life expectancy than any other medical innovation. Concern exists, however, about the link between hygiene and increased incidence of immune-mediated disorders...