A new method for the in vitro determination of the bile tolerance of potentially probiotic lactobacilli.

A new in vitro method was developed to determine the bile tolerance of potentially probiotic lactobacilli. The overnight culture of various lactobacilli strains was inoculated into sterile, half-strength MRS broth supplemented with and without 0.3% (wt/vol) oxgall, buffered with 0.1 M sodium phosphate buffer at a final pH of 7.3, and incubated at 37 °C for 12 h under anaerobic conditions. The bile tolerance ability of the lactobacilli strains was expressed as the percentage of the propagation generations of the bacterial cells in the presence of oxgall to those in the absence of oxgall. The bile tolerance ability of 11 strains of 8 Lactobacillus species, including 3 bile salt hydrolase (BSH)-negative strains and 8 BSH-positive strains, was analyzed using the newly developed method and two traditional methods. The results showed that bile tolerance ability of the strains was considerably different depending on the analysis method used. The newly developed method mimics the physiological environment of the human small intestine, and avoids changes in pH and bile salt composition during the incubation period, which are drawbacks of the traditional bile tolerance test methods. Therefore, the analysis method developed in this study is more suitable to screen or compare the bile tolerance ability of lactobacilli strains.

Bile acid patterns in commercially available oxgall powders used for the evaluation of the bile tolerance ability of potential probiotics.

This study aimed to analyze the bile acid patterns in commercially available oxgall powders used for evaluation of the bile tolerance ability of probiotic bacteria. Qxgall powders purchased from Sigma-Aldrich, Oxoid and BD Difco were dissolved in distilled water, and analyzed. Conjugated bile acids were profiled by ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), free bile acids were detected as their p-bromophenacyl ester derivatives using reversed-phase HPLC after extraction with acetic ether, and total bile acids were analyzed by enzymatic-colorimetric assay. The results showed that 9 individual bile acids (i.e., taurocholic acid, glycocholic acid, taurodeoxycholic acid, glycodeoxycholic acid, taurochenodeoxycholic acid, glycochenodeoxycholic acid, cholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, deoxycholic acid) were present in each of the oxgall powders tested. The content of total bile acid among the three oxgall powders was similar; however, the relative contents of the individual bile acids among these oxgall powders were significantly different (P < 0.001). The oxgall powder from Sigma-Aldrich was closer to human bile in the ratios of glycine-conjugated bile acids to taurine-conjugated bile acids, dihydroxy bile acids to trihydroxy bile acids, and free bile acids to conjugated bile acids than the other powders were. It was concluded that the oxgall powder from Sigma-Aldrich should be used instead of those from Oxoid and BD Difco to evaluate the bile tolerance ability of probiotic bacteria as human bile model.