Oral administration of live Bifidobacterium substrains isolated from healthy centenarians enhanced immune function in BALB/c mice

Generally, there is an age-related decline in the human gut titer of Bifidobacterium species, but the titer in healthy centenarians was previously reported to be comparable to that found in much younger people. We addressed whether elevated Bifidobacterium titers relate positively to immune function. This study evaluated the immunoactivities of 2 Bifidobacterium strains (B adolescentis BBMN23 and B longum BBMN68) isolated from healthy centenarians in China. Different dosages (2 × 1011, 2 × 109, or 2 × 107 colony-forming units [CFU]/kg body weight) of live bifidobacteria were orally administered once per day to healthy BALB/c mice, and the control group was given sterile skim milk every day. After 4 weeks, the immune parameters including cellular immunity (delayed-type hypersensitivity [DTH], and splenic lymphocyte proliferation), humoral immunity (serum hemolytic activity in immunized animals), and nonspecific immunity (peritoneal macrophages phagocytsis natural killer [NK] cell activity) were measured. We report that both Bifidobacterium strains independently increased the DTH response. Macrophage phagocytosis was also enhanced, while activities of the NK cells and levels of the serum hemolysin also were significantly higher than in the control group. There was a significant increase in splenic lymphocyte proliferation in bifidobacteria treatment animals compared to controls. In conclusion, ingestion of B. adolescentis BBMN23 and B. longum BBMN68 can enhance both innate and acquired immunity in healthy specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice and strains of bifidobacteria from healthy centenarians in Bama longevity villages in China may possess potentially valuable immunomodulatory properties. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.