Portrait of an immunoregulatory Bifidobacterium.

Overview

There is increasing interest in the administration of microbes or microbial metabolites for the prevention and treatment of aberrant inflammatory activity. The protective effects associated with these microbes are mediated by multiple mechanisms involving epithelial cells, DCs and T cells, but most data are derived from animal models. In this addendum, we summarize our recent data, showing that oral consumption of Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 is associated with enhanced IL-10 secretion and Foxp3 expression in human peripheral blood. In addition, we discuss the potential DC subset-specific mechanisms, which could contribute to DC(REG) and T(REG) programming by specific gut microbes.