Probiotics Appear to Alleviate Pancreatitis

A probiotic treatment appears to mitigate pancreatitis in an animal model, leading to a new theory of how probiotics may act, according to new findings. The bacterial species most closely linked with improvement in health was found for the first time in the course of this research.

Severe acute pancreatitis is a critical illness that is characterized by intestinal barrier dysfunction. Whereas it is typically self-limiting, in 20%-30% of cases patients develop serious disease, including systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, and/or multiple organ dysfunction, which frequently cause death.

In this study, Dr. Jacoline Gerritsen, of University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands), and her collaborators gave one group of lab rats probiotic on a daily basis, starting five days before they induced acute pancreatitis, and continuing briefly afterwards, before they sacrificed the animals. Another set of rats received a placebo.

The major finding was that in the small intestine, higher than normal numbers of the newly discovered bacterium, commensal rat ileum bacterium (CRIB) were correlated with reduced severity of acute pancreatitis in animals that had been fed probiotic. These animals had less infection of remote organs, less infection of dying and dead pancreatic tissues, and less severe immune response during acute pancreatitis, as revealed by lower plasma levels of proinflammatory cytokines. CRIB, a member of the genus Clostridium, is not a constituent of the probiotic (Ecologic 641), but instead a benign bacterium that normally inhabits the lower gut. “…these results suggest that effects of this multispecies probiotic mixture… are mediated by stimulation of a not previously described gut commensal bacterium…which protects the host from severe sepsis,” according to the report.

“This research has provided new knowledge on the possible mechanisms behind probiotic action,” said Dr. Gerritsen. “In addition, it shows that bacterial species inhabiting the small intestine might be very important for health. Up until now, medical researchers have neglected the small intestine, because it is very difficult to obtain such samples from humans.” That needs to change, she concluded.

The study’s findings were published in the November 2011 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

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University Medical Center Utrecht