The Effect of Probiotic Strains on Myocardial Infarction Size, Biochemical and Immunological Parameters in Rats with...

Numerous experimental and clinical studies have shown the effectiveness of various probiotic strains in metabolic disorders, gastrointestinal and liver diseases, immune system pathology. The effects of probiotics on cardiovascular dysfunction are less well known. The development and validation of a new experimental model in rats, including obesity, acute colon inflammation and antibiotic-induced dysbiosis, with common characteristics of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), became the basis for investigating the effects of probiotic drugs on myocardial resistance to ischemic-reperfusion injury (IRI) using an in vivo model of infarction after coronary occlusion. A 24% increase in myocardial infarction compared to intact animals (p < 0.05) and significant changes in leukogram, biochemical and immunological parameters were found in Wistar rats with SIRS modelling. Introduction of a mixture of strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA-5) and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis (BB-12) to animals with SIRS reduced infarct size to a value close to the control. Rats treated with LA-5 and BB-12 also showed normalization of the leukocyte count, bile acids, transforming growth factor-β, interleukins: IL-1α, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-α, lipopolysaccharide and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in blood in comparison with the SIRS group and with the groups treated with other probiotic strains. The obtained data convincingly show the prospects for further study of the cardiotropic potential of probiotic microorganisms in translational studies.