• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.425-433
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• 1998

The characteristics of the reaction of calcium carbonate $(CaCO_3)$ immobilized with alginate as buffer system for the high concentration cultivation of bifidobacteria in fermenter are described by the mathematical model, and tested for the reusing possibility of the used $CaCO_3$ beads. When$CaCO_3$ beads with the various diameters were reacted in 0.1 M of the mixed organic acids (0.6 M of acetic acid and 0.4 M lactic acid) and in fermenter inoculated Bifidobacterium longum ATCC 15707, the change of bead diameters can be calculated with the amount of the decreased $CaCO_3$ from the surface of bead using the mathematical model. These values was similar to the directly measured bead diameter by a micrometer. Therefore, it was considered that the mathematical model could be used for explaining the reaction charateristics of the $CaCO_3$ bead reacted with the organic acids. When Bifidobacterium longum was incubated at $37^{\circ}C$ for 20 hours in fermenter with $CaCO_3$ beads, the buffering effect of $CaCO_3$, the reduce rate of the bead diameter, and the growth rate of Bifidobacterium longum were higher at the smaller beads than beads with the larger diameters. Also, when Bifidobacterium longum was incubated in fermenter with the mixed beads which were added new beads to the recovered beads in order to equalize with the total surface area of initial beads, the buffering effect of $CaCO_3$ bead and the growth rate of Bifidobacterium longum were very corresponded with the results of the fermentation using the only initial beads. Therfore, it is expected that the used beads can be reused by adding the initial beads.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.571-575
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• 1997

In the present study, characterization of fermented carrot juice by Bifidobacterium was performed. When inoculated at the level of $10^6\;CFU/mL$ with various Bifidobacterium strains, cell growth of B. longum, B. adolescentis and B. infantis reached more than $10^8\;CFU/mL$. On the other hand, B. bifidum strains reached less than $10^8\;CFU/mL$. Compared with carrot, grape juice did not allow the growth of Bifidobacterium, while peach juice and orange juice were as good as carrot for the growth of Bifidobacterium. On mixed culture with Lactobacillus, growth of Bifidobacterium decreased and cell death rate increased considerably. On panel test, Bifidobacterium cultured-carrot juice showed high score on sensory test than non-fermented carrot. Therefore, fermentation may lead to the quality improvement of carrot juice by combining health-promoting effect of Bifidobacterium and high nutrition value of carrot.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 1998

To study the oxygen tolerance mechanism of bifidobacteria, we have studied the growth of cells, the activities of the enzymes which were related with oxygen, such as catalase, superoxide dismutase(SOD), NADH oxidase, and NADH peroxidase, and cellular fatty acid compositions of Bifidobacterium adolescentis and B. longum under anaerobic and aerated (microaerobic and aerobic) conditions. B. longum grew relatively well under the microaerobic conditions, whereas the growth of B. adolescentis was inhibited under the same aerated conditions. B. adolescentis had extremely low level of NADH oxidative enzymes while B. longum had the relatively high level of NADH oxidative enzymes, whose activities were dramatically increased from 3.7 to 11.4 times by microaerobic condition but not in B. adolescentis. The activity of SOD was unexpectedly high in B. adolescentis compared with in B. longum under anaerobic and aerated conditions. The activities of catalase were not detected in all samples tested in this study. We also found that normal $C_{l6:0}$ and $C_{18:1}$ were the major fatty acids in B. adolescentis and B. longum under anaerobic and aerated conditions. 2.2-14.1% $C_{l9:0}$ cyclo fatty acid was detected only in B. longum and the fatty acid was increased by the addition of the aeration. The $C_{l9:0}$ cyclic fatty acid was identified as a cis 9, 10-methylene octadecanoic acid, which was different from lactobacillic acid in the cyclized site. 6.6%-24.6% of dimethyl acetals (DMA) which came from plasmalogen were observed in the B. adolescentis and B. longum grown under anaerobic condition, and the components were notably decreased in the cells grown under the aerated conditions. It is believed that NADH oxidative enzymes play an important role to detoxify oxygen metabolites of Bifidobacteriurn spp. under anaerobic and microaerobic conditions. Independently from oxidative enzymes, it seems that oxygen stress may induce the change of the level of cellular fatty acids showing an increase of $C_{l9:0}$ cyclo in B. longum and a decrease of $C_{l8:1}$ of plasmalogen in B. longum and B. adolescentis to adapt in environment.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.1190-1197
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• 2016

The acid response of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum BBMN68 has been studied in our previous study. The fab gene, which is supposed to be involved in membrane fatty acid biosynthesis, was demonstrated to be induced in acid response. In order to investigate the relationship between acid response and cell membrane fatty acid composition, the acid adaptation of BBMN68 was assessed and the membrane fatty acid composition at different adaptation conditions was identified. Indeed, the fatty acid composition was influenced by acid adaptation. Our results showed that the effective acid adaptations were accompanied with decrease in the unsaturated to saturated fatty acids ratio (UFA/SFA) and increase in cyclopropane fatty acid (CFA) content, which corresponded to previous studies. Moreover, both effective and non-effective acid adaptation conditions resulted in decrease in the C_18:1 cis-9/C_18:1 trans-9 ratio, indicating that the C_18:1 cis-9/C_18:1 trans-9 ratio is associated with acid tolerance response but not with acid adaptation response. Taken together, this study indicated that the UFA/SFA and CFA content of BBMN68 were involved in acid adaptation and the C_18:1 cis-9/C_18:1 trans-9 ratio was involved in acid tolerance response.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.490-495
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• 2007

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are beneficial for the gastrointestinal tract and reinforce immunity in human health. Recently, many functional products using the lactic acid bacteria have been developed. Among these LAB, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium longum, and Bifidobacterium bifidum are frequently used for probiotic products. In order to monitor these LAB in commercial probiotic products, a multiplex PCR method was developed. We designed four species-specific primer pairs for multiplex PCR from the 16S rRNA, 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region, and 23S rRNA genes in Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium longum, and Bifidobacterium bifidum. Using these primer pairs, 4 different LAB were detected with high specificity in functional foods. We suggest that the multiplex PCR method developed in this study would be an efficient tool for simple, rapid, and reliable identification of LAB used as probiotic strains.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2020

This study assessed the effects of probiotics in canine atopic dermatitis (AD). We enrolled 11 client-owned dogs with AD and randomly allocated them to two groups. The probiotics group (n = 7) was prescribed with Bifidobacterium longum while the control group (n = 4) received a placebo powder once a day for 12 weeks. In both groups, the degree of skin lesions was evaluated based on the Canine Atopic Dermatitis Extent and Severity Index (CADESI)-4. We also measured the transepidermal water loss (TEWL). We assessed pruritus severity using the pruritus visual analog scale (PVAS). Alteration of consumed drug doses was converted into medication scores. All the evaluation indices were surveyed every 4 weeks. In the probiotics group, there was a significant decrease in the CADESI-4 score at 4, 8, and 12 weeks compared to that of the baseline score (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in TEWL, PVAS, and medication score at each time point and between groups. Although these results showed that Bifidobacterium longum did not reduce pruritus, TEWL, and the dosage of drugs for canine AD, it was effective in improving skin lesions, therefore, probiotics could be considered in canine AD with severe skin symptoms.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.115-119
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• 1997

The chemical and microbial properties and acceptability of milk and soymilk inoculated with Bifidobacterium were studied at each storage time (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 days). Soymilk, milk, low-heat milk, low-fat milk, non-fat dry milk with Bifidobacterium longum ATCC 15707 were incubated in a nitrogen-carbon dioxide atmosphere at $4^{\circ}C$ for 30 days. pH and acidity of all the samples were in the range of $pH\;6.6{\sim}pH\;6.9$ and $0.4%{\sim}0.55%$ for 30 days, respectively. The viable cell numbers in non-fat dry milk reached above $8.4{\times}10^9\;CFU/mL$ after 15 days. The glucose content in soymilk was $4.5{\times}10^{-2}{\sim}5.5{\times}10^{-2}\;mM$ at 10 days of storage. Milk and soymilk containing B. longum at $4^{\circ}C$ were found to be different in taste, odor, off-flavor at each storage time (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 days). Sensory scores indicated that milk containing bifidobacteria was poorly affected by the storage time, but milk at 4 days of storage was quite close in odor and off-flavor to milk with storage time 0. Soymilk containing bifidobacteria at 2 and 4 days of storage had significantly higher acceptability of taste than soymilk with storage time 0.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1846-1849
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• 2018

Recent human gut microbiome studies have supported that the genus Bifidobacterium is one of the most beneficial bacteria for human intestinal health. To develop a new probiotic strain for functional food applications, fourteen fecal samples were collected from healthy Koreans and the strain BCBR-583 was newly selected and isolated from a 25-year-old Korean woman's fecal sample using the selective medium for Bifidobacterium. Subsequent fructose-6-phosphate phosphoketolase (F6PPK) test and 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis of the strain BCBR-583 confirmed that it belongs to B. longum subsp. longum. The stress resistance tests showed that it has oxygen and heat tolerance activities (5- and 3.9-fold increase for 24 h at 60 and 120 rpm, respectively; $78.61{\pm}6.67%$ survival rate at $45^{\circ}C$ for 24 h). In addition, gut environment adaptation tests revealed that this strain may be well-adapted in the gut habitat, with gastric acid/bile salt resistance ($85.79{\pm}1.53%$, survival rate under 6 h treatments of gastric acid and bile salt) and mucin adhesion ($73.72{\pm}7.36%$). Furthermore, additional tests including cholesterol lowering assay showed that it can reduce $86.31{\pm}1.85%$ of cholesterol. Based on these results, B. longum BCBR-583 has various stress resistance for survival during food processing and environmental adaptation activities for dominant survival in the gut, suggesting that it could be a good candidate for fermented food applications as a new probiotic strain.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.493-498
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• 2005

The safety assessment of Bifidobacterium longum SPM1205 isolated from healthy Koreans and this strain's inhibitory effects on fecal harmful enzymes of intestinal microflora were investigated. The overall safety of this strain was investigated during a feeding trial. Groups of SD rats were orally administered a test strain or commercial reference strain B. longum $1\times10^9\;CFU/kg$ body weight/day for four weeks. Throughout this time, their feed intake, water intake and live body weight were monitored. Fecal samples were periodically collected to test harmful enzyme activities of intestinal microflora. At the end of the four-week observation period, samples of blood, liver, spleen, kidney, and gut tissues were collected to determine for hematological parameters and histological differences. The results obtained in this experiment demonstrated that four weeks of consumption of this Bifidobacterium strain had no adverse effects on rat's general health status, blood biochemical parameters or histology. Therefore, it is likely to be safe for human use. Fecal harmful enzymes such as $\beta-glucosidase,\;\beta-glucuronidase$, tryptophanase and urease, were effectively inhibited during the administration of the B. longum SPM1205. These results suggested that this B. longum SPM 1205 could be used for humans as a probiotic strain.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.63-67
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• 2002

Bifidobacterium strain was isolated from the feces of brast fed infants. The isolated strain was identified as Bifidobacterium longum by 16S rRNA sequence analysis and named as Bifidobacterium SH2. The MRS medium was modified to obtain high density cells of Bifidobacterium SH2. The optimal medium was determined to be 50 g/L lactose, 10 g/L beef extract, 10 g/L peptone, 5 g/L yeast extract, 7 g/L sodium acetate, 2 g/L ammonium citrate, 2 g/L disodium phosphate,1 g/L tween 80, 0.2 g/L MnSO$_4$ and 0.5 g/L L-cysteine. The pH and temperature were optimized as 5.0 and $37^{\circ}C$, respectively. Through out the optimization of medium composition and culture conditions, the dry cell weight and viable cell count were 2.5 times and 1.8 times higer than those in MRS medium, respectively.