Effects of gender and age on immune responses of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells to probiotics: A large scale pilot study
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Despite the widely accepted concept that probiotics confer miscellaneous benefits to hosts, the controversies surrounding these health-promoting claims cannot be ignored. These controversies hinder development and innovation in this field. RESULTS: To clarify the effects of age and gender on probiotic-induced immune responses, we recruited 1613 Taiwanese individuals and calculated the ratio of IFN-γ to IL-10 production after each individual's PBMCs were stimulated by six probiotic strains (L. paracasei BRAP01, L. acidophilus AD300, B. longum BA100, E. faecium BR0085, L. rhamnosus AD500 and L. reuteri BR101). Our results indicated that gender and age have only minor effects on the immune modulation of probiotics. Additionally, we showed that L. paracasei BRAP01 and L. acidophilus AD300 are the two dominant strains inducing IFN-γ/IL-10 production in Taiwanese individuals and that L. reuteri BR101 was the most effective stimulator of IL-10/IFN-γ. Additionally, a significant inverse relationship between the ability of L. paracasei BRAP01 and L. rhamnosus AD500 to stimulate IFN-γ/IL-10 or IL-10/IFN-γ production was also observed. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that age and gender have only minor effects on the immune modulation abilities of probiotics.
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Probiotics may contribute to the development of a nonspecific immune response in humans.
“In addition to increasing the risk of infection, probiotics may contribute to the development of a nonspecific immune response in humans [83,84].”
From Current Concepts in Probiotic Safety and Efficacy (2026) · cites this paper as [84]
The Introduction (page unavailable) lists excessive immune stimulation among reported adverse events associated with probiotics. The paper also studies probiotic-stimulated immune responses in human cells in vitro, but it does not establish that probiotics produce a nonspecific immune response in humans. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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BackgroundCurrent Concepts in Probiotic Safety and Efficacy
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Safety of Probiotics in Health and Disease
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Probiotic Intervention for Human Health and Disease
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“24 Despite this, the specific gut microbial taxa and the mechanisms underlying such regulation of innate immune responses remain to be elucidated.”
- Authors
- Ho, Y.-H., Huang, Y.-T., Lu, Y.-C., Lee, S.-Y., Tsai, M.-F., Hung, S.-P., & Hsu, T.-Y.
- Corresponding author
- Hsu, Ting-Yuan
- Venue
- The Journal of nutrition, health and aging
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-05
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 521-526
- ISSN
- 1279-7707 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC12878216
- OpenAlex
- W2531898397
- Cited by
- 6
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 1.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The journal of nutrition health & aging (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Microbial Metabolites in Food Biotechnology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Keywords
- probiotics, immunomodulation, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, interferon-gamma, IL-10, gender differences, age effects, probiotic strains, Taiwanese population
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Immunity, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Interferon-gamma, Lactobacillus, Leukocytes, Mononuclear, Male, Middle Aged, Pilot Projects, Sex Factors, Taiwan, Interleukin-10, Probiotics, Young Adult
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