Haemostatic alterations in infected malnourished mice: effect of nasal treatment with Lactobacillus casei

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the preventive effect of different doses of Lactobacillus casei (Lc) intranasally administered on haemostatic alterations induced by a septic process in malnourished mice. Malnourished mice (MN) received a balanced diet (BD) or BD for 7d with intranasal addition of different doses of Lc during the last 2d (BD+Lc107 , BD+Lc108 , BD+Lc109 cells/d/mice). Experimental, MN and well-nourished (WN) groups were infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae. Malnourishment altered serum total proteins (TP) and haemostatic parameters. Renutrition with Lc improved them without significant (p<0.05) differences between doses. After infection, the pathogen was detected in lung and blood. Mice treated with Lc had negative hemocultures and lower bacterial counts at 240 h post infection (hpi) while BD+Lc109 showed significantly lower counts in lung. The infection altered Prothrombin Time, Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time, Fibrinogen, Platelet counts and TP in all groups. MN showed the greatest changes. Renutrition with Lc had beneficial effects, BD+Lc109 showed a better behavior (TP12hpi WN= 59.70±2.88 g/L; MN= 40.00±2.88; BD= 53.80±2.16; BD+Lc107 = 46.20±1.70; BD+Lc108 = 43.00± 1.67; BD+Lc109 = 62.10±2.69). Intranasal addition of 109 cells/d/ mice of Lc was the most effective dose to favor pathogen clearance and recover some haemostatic parameters.