Probiotic bacteria – similar to yogurt – protect the intestines of mice from damage by ionizing radiation, reports Gut.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that a probiotic administered to mice, containing lactic acid bacteria – including Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) – largely protects the intestinal epithelium against the effects of ionizing radiation.
The rapidly dividing intestinal epithelial cells are extremely sensitive to radiation. They are often damaged in patients undergoing radiotherapy for prostate, bladder, cervical or endometrial cancer. The consequence of the death of epithelial cells may be troublesome diarrhea, and sometimes sepsis. Sometimes you have to give up radiation therapy or reduce the dose of radiation.
Although the previous attempts to use probiotics in patients undergoing radiotherapy have not yielded successful results, this may be due to the fact that they were administered after, and not before, the procedure. Meanwhile, as experiments on mice seem to prove, probiotics have a protective effect, not supporting the reconstruction of the intestinal epithelium. It’s probably about blocking the death of cells (apoptosis).