International Dairy Journal 12 (2002) 197–200 The survival and colonic adhesion of Bifidobacterium infantis in patients with ulcerative colitis Atte von Wright a, *, Terttu Vilpponen-Salmela b , Marta Pag " es Llopis a , Kevin Collins c , Barry Kiely c , Fergus Shanahan c , Colum Dunne c a Institute of Applied Biotechnology, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland b Harjula Hospital, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland c Departments of Microbiology, Medicine and National Food Biotechnology Centre, University College Cork, Western Road, Cork, Ireland Received 4 April 2001; accepted 21 October 2001 Abstract While evidence of the beneficial effects of probiotics on acute intestinal disorders has been accumulating during recent years, there have been few studies on the use of probiotics in chronic diseases of the digestive tract. Since colonisation of the gut and adhesion to the intestinal mucosa have been considered as essential in probiotic action, a study with a prospective probiotic strain, Bifidobacterium infantis UCC35624, was performed with seven volunteer ulcerative colitis patients. The volunteers consumed a fermented milk product containing the strain for 5–7 days before colonoscopy. Faecal analysis demonstrated that the strain had established itself in the colon, reaching levels of 10 5 –10 8 cfu g 1 , depending on the individual. The strain could also be recovered from biopsies (especially from those specimens obtained from the transverse and descending part of the colon). The study provides preliminary data which support the necessity for an actual therapy trial. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Probiotic bacteria; Adhesion; Colonisation; Ulcerative colitis 1. Introduction Consumption of health-promoting bacteria or pro- biotics has been suggested as a treatment for diverse intestinal disorders such as lactose malabsorption, viral and bacterial diarrhoeas and food allergy (Gilliland, 1990; Hammes & Tichaczek, 1994; Salminen, Deighton, Benno, & Gorbach, 1998). Although clinical evidence to support these claims have been accumulating, at least in relation to a few specific probiotic strains, the actual mechanisms of probiotic action are still obscure (von Wright & Salminen, 1999). However, certain criteria for selection of probiotics have been suggested, one of them being adhesion to the colon (Huis in ‘t Veld & Shortt, 1996). Because of the close association of many endogenous bacterial strains to the intestinal mucosa noted in both animal and human studies (Fuller, Barrow, & Brooker, 1978; Kotarski & Savage, 1979; Molin et al., 1993) adhesion has been thought to be an important factor in colonisation. Moreover, the possible immunomodulatory effects of probiotic strains require close contact with the immunologically active cells of the epithelium (Schiffrin, Brassart, Servin, Rochat, & Donnet-Hughes, 1997). While most adhesion studies have been performed in vitro with different intestinal cell lines, human colonic biopsies have been succesfully used to detect adhesion in vivo (Johansson et al., 1993; Alander et al., 1999). As mentioned above, the proposed uses of probiotics have been mainly directed against acute intestinal disorders. However, chronic diseases such as ulcerative colitis could also be amenable to probiotic treatment. Promising results have been obtained, for example, with a Bifidobacterium infantis strain UCC35624 (hereafter Bifidobacterium UCC35624) in an in vivo murine model, CD45RB high (Dunne et al., 1999). These mice develop a chronic intestinal inflammation leading to a fatal wasting disease. Administering Bifidobacterium UCC35624 together with another probiotic strain Lactobacillus salivarius UCC118 (Dunne et al., 1999; Mattila-Sandholm et al., 1999) significantly reduced the progress of this disease. *Corresponding author. Tel.: +358-17-162087; fax: +358-17- 163322. E-mail address: atte.vonwright@uku.fi (A. von Wright). 0958-6946/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0958-6946(01)00162-5