Effects of Probiotic (Bacillus subtilis DE111) Supplementation on Immune Function, Hormonal Status, and Physical Performance in Division I Baseball Players
Open accessAbstract
We sought to determine the effects of probiotic supplementation (Bacillus subtilis DE111; 1 billion CFU∙d−1) on markers of immune and hormonal status in collegiate male athletes following 12 weeks of offseason training. Twenty-five Division I male baseball athletes (20.1 ± 1.5 years, 85.5 ± 10.5 kg, 184.7 ± 6.3 cm) participated in this double blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study. Participants were randomly assigned to a probiotic (PRO; n = 13) or placebo (PL; n = 12) group. Pre- and post-training, all athletes provided resting blood and saliva samples. Circulating concentrations of testosterone, cortisol, TNF-α, IL-10, and zonulin were examined in the blood, while salivary immunoglobulin A (SIgA) and SIgM were assayed as indicators of mucosal immunity. Separate analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were performed on all measures collected post intervention. No differences in measures of body composition or physical performance were seen between groups. TNF-α concentrations were significantly (p = 0.024) lower in PRO compared to PL, while there were no significant group differences in any other biochemical markers examined. A main effect for time was observed (p < 0.05) for increased testosterone (p = 0.045), IL-10 (p = 0.048), SIgA rate (p = 0.031), and SIgM rate (p = 0.002) following offseason training. These data indicate that probiotic supplementation had no effect on body composition, performance, hormonal status, or gut permeability, while it may attenuate circulating TNF-α in athletes.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In Division I collegiate baseball players, 12 weeks of B. subtilis DE111 supplementation showed no group differences in strength, performance, or body composition, but significantly lower serum TNF-α concentrations than placebo.
“There were no group differences observed between those who took the probiotic and placebo for any measure of strength, performance, or body composition. However, those athletes who did supplement with probiotics had significantly lower serum TNF-α concentrations than the placebo group.”
From International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Probiotics (2019) · cites this paper as [83]
B. longum 35,624 supplementation in 20 female Division I collegiate swimmers during a 6-week intense training phase produced no difference in salivary IgA between groups.
“There were no difference in salivary IgA between groups throughout the study in agreement with a study investigating B. subtilis DE111 in collegiate baseball players [83].”
From International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Probiotics (2019) · cites this paper as [83]
Twelve weeks of probiotic supplementation with B. subtilis DE111 had no effect on gut permeability as measured by zonulin in Division I baseball players.
“Most recently, 12 weeks of probiotic supplementation (B. subtilis DE111) had no effect on gut permeability as measured by zonulin in Division I baseball players [83].”
From International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Probiotics (2019) · cites this paper as [83]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 56 · Cited by 69
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [39]Green S. Salkind N. Akey T. Methods for controlling type I error across multiple hypothesis tests Using SPSS for Windows: Analysing and Understanding Data Prentice Hall PTR Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA 2000 Volume 2 395 396
- Authors
- Townsend, J. R., Bender, D., Vantrease, W. C., Sapp, P. A., Toy, A. M., Woods, C. A., & Johnson, K. D.
- Affiliations
- Lipscomb University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Townsend, Jeremy R.
- Venue
- Sports
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2018-07-26
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 70
- ISSN
- 2075-4663 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6162611
- OpenAlex
- W2884632609
- Cited by
- 69
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 5
- FWCI
- 4.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Sports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Deerland Enzymes Inc. (n/a)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Exercise and Physiological Responses
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Sports Performance and Training
- Keywords
- probiotic supplementation, baseball players, collegiate athletes, immune function, testosterone, cortisol, TNF-α, IL-10, zonulin, intestinal permeability, salivary IgA, mucosal immunity, physical performance, body composition
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
