Antimutagenic and radioprotective properties of products from Lactobacterium Bulgaricum strains

The antimutagenic properties of the strains LBL-4 and LBL-144 have been studied by the incidence of micronuclei in polychromatic erythrocytes (PE) and endogenous spleen colony forming units (E-CFU) in C57BL mice. The lyophilized lactic acid products have been administered orally in the course of 3 weeks on 5 consecutive days. After the last treatment the mice have been gamma irradiated with 0.5, 3.0, 7.0 and 8.0 Gy. The prophylactic pretreatment of mice with LBL-4 in the schedule 3 x 5 days has shown a reduction of the induced micronuclei in PE after gamma irradiation with 3.0 Gy (37% compared to 50.5%; p < 0.001). The radiation effects caused by a lower dose of 0.5 Gy has not been modified by LBL-4 (36.7% compared to 33.8%). The application of LBL-144 does not reduce the mutagenic activity of both 0.5 and 3.0 Gy gamma rays. Applied independently, both LBL-4 and LBL-144 have shown the same frequency of micro-nucleated PE as the male and female mice controls. The radioprotective properties of LBL-4 have been assessed according to E-CFU and the changes in spleen weights after irradiation with 7.0 and 8.0 Gy gamma rays. The amount of E-CFU have been counted on day 9 after irradiation. A significant increase of spleen colony formation units has been established in mice pretreated with LBL-4. The spleen weights of the protected mice have been increased compared to unprotected animals. The results obtained show a good protection of haemopoietic stem cells by the product LBL-4. (author)