The bacteria found in some fermented dairy products, such as
yogurt, may alter gene expression in human gut microbes, and
resultant tweaks to metabolic processes could be behind
gastrointestinal benefits often observed in people consuming
such probiotic products, according to a study published today
(26 October) in Science Translational Medicine. The work was
funded by several grants from the National Institutes of Health
and from Danone Research, the scientific research arm of Groupe
Danone, a Paris-based multinational food products corporation
that specializes in dairy products. Since the 1990s, clinical
trials have shown that probiotic bacteria can aid digestion in
humans, but the molecular mechanisms involved in conferring
those health benefits have proved difficult to pin down. "Nobody
really understands how probiotics affect human health," said
University of California, Davis, food microbiologist David
Mills, who was not involved with the study. "What [this study]
has shown is that maybe one of the mech