A Key Role of Dendritic Cells in Probiotic Functionality
Figure 4
Protective effect of intra-peritoneal administration of LAB-treated BMDCs on acute TNBS-induced colitis in BALB/c mice. Wallace inflammation scores were calculated after a TNBS challenge in mice either not treated (None) or intraperitoneally injected by untreated BMDCs (DC) or BMDCs treated with (A) Lr32 (Lr32-DC) or (B) Ls33 (Ls33-DC) strains. The comparison between the TNBS-control groups and the groups that received the corresponding untreated BMDCs (DC) was calculated using the Mann-Whitney U test (<0.01, **; p<0.001, ***). Percentage mortality and protection (reduction of the mean Wallace scores of mice treated with BMDCs, in relation to the mean score of TNBS control group) are also indicated. In A, the effect of Lr32-treated BMDCs was also compared to the intra-peritoneal administration of 108 CFU of Lr32 bacteria (Lr32-IP) and in B, an additional group of mice was included, pre-treated with 3 intra-peritoneal administrations of prednisone (10 mg/kg), representing a clinically relevant standard treatment for Crohn's disease (36). Data represent the mean±SEM of two representative experiments (number of mice n = 10).