Background: The immunomodulative effects of Lactic Acid Bacteria as probiotics have been already demonstrated.
Objectives: The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of oral administration of Lactobacillus acidophilus on the immune responses and patterns of cytokine production in the BALB/c mice bearing breast cancer.
Materials and methods: The current study used thirty inbred BALB/c mice, six- to eight-week-old; they were divided into two groups of 15 each. One group was used as control in each assay. The L. acidophilus (ATCC4356) used in the study was inoculated in MRS broth and cultivated overnight at 37°C under anaerobic conditions, then collected by centrifugation, and re-suspended in Phosphate-buffered Saline (PBS) media. After preparation of the proper amount of the suspension, it was orally administered to the mice via gavage and the control mice received an equal volume of PBS in the same manner.
Results: The results showed that oral administration of L. acidophilus as a potent immunostimulator agent could motivate the proliferation of immune cells. Moreover, it could increase the production of IFN-γ and decrease the production of IL-4, known as Th2 cytokines, in the spleen cell culture. The results showed that the survival time of the L. acidophilus administered mice significantly increased in comparison to that of the control mice.
Conclusions: The current study findings suggested that L. acidophilus can promote immune responses with Th1 bias and may increase the antitumor response. Further, the consumption of this probiotic strain may help to manage the immune response in tumor condition, but more studies are needed to investigate the other mechanisms of this effect.
Keywords: Breast Cancer; IFN-γ; Immunomodulation; Lactobacillus acidophilus.