Lowering Cholesterol with Probiotic Dairy Products
November 4/Harbin, China/Technology News Focus -- According to a study from Harbin, People's Republic of China, "Consumption of dairy products containing probiotics with cholesterol-lowering activity has been proposed as a means to lower serum cholesterol. In the present work, 19 yeast strains, isolated from raw milk, were tested to obtain potential probiotic yeasts for assimilating cholesterol."
"During in vitro tests, 17 yeast strains were capable of growth in bile salt solutions, and most of the yeast strains tolerated low pH, surviving in gastric juice. Among the 19 strains assessed, Geotrichum sp. BY2 and Pichia kudriavzevii BY10 showed highest adhesive ability to HT-29 cells. All yeast strains were able to assimilate cholesterol in the range of 3.6-44.4% over a 72-hour incubation, and seven of the yeast strains were significantly higher at assimilating cholesterol (P < 0.05)," wrote L.S. Chen and colleagues.