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Lactobacillus GG may be effective in reducing inflammation in arthritic
patients according to a new study using a rat model.  Also, here is a good
review I found on research that has been done on probiotics.

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DDT Vol. 8, No. 15 August 2003:692-700

Reviews: Therapeutic Focus

Using probiotics and prebiotics to improve gut health

Kieran M. Tuohy, Hollie M. Probert, Chris W. Smejkal and Glann R. Gibson

Free PDF format full-text:
http://www.unb.br/fs/rs/disciplina/imunologia/idi_us.pdf

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J Nutr. 2004 Aug;134(8):1964-1969

Lactobacillus GG Bacteria Ameliorate Arthritis in Lewis Rats.

Baharav E, Mor F, Halpern M, Weinberger A.

Department of Medicine B, Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Campus, and
Laboratory of Physiopathology of Joints and Inflammation, Felsenstein
Medical Research Center, Petah Tiqva, affiliated with the Sackler Faculty
of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Probiotic bacteria have beneficial effects in infectious and inflammatory
diseases, principally in bowel disorders. In the case of chronic
progressive autoimmune arthritides, a major goal of treatment is to reduce
inflammation. We hypothesized that probiotic bacteria would ameliorate
inflammation found in arthritis models. To assess this effect, Lewis rats
were injected with 50 microg bovine alpha-tropomyosin (TRM) or complete
Freund's adjuvant (CFA) to induce tropomyosin arthritis (TA) or adjuvant
arthritis (AA), respectively. In both models, the rats were divided into 6
groups and fed 0.5 mL/d of the following suspensions: 1) heat-killed
Lactobacillus GG (LGG) bacteria; 2) live LGG, both 10(11) colony-forming
units (cfu)/L; 3) sterilized milk; 4) plain yogurt; 5) yogurt containing 10
(11) cfu/L LGG; or 6) sterilized water. In the disease-prevention
experiments, feeding started 1 wk before or after disease induction. In the
therapeutic experiments, feeding was initiated at the onset of clinical
arthritis. In all experiments, there were significant interactions between
time and treatment (P < 0.001), except for milk, which had no effect in the
therapeutic experiment. Histologically, rats fed yogurt containing LGG had
a milder inflammation in all experiments (P < 0.05), whereas rats fed plain
yogurt exhibited a moderate inflammatory score only in the prevention
experiments. Anti-TRM antibody titers were not affected by any of the
treatments in any of the experiments. Ingestion of live or heat-killed
human LGG had a clinically beneficial effect on experimental arthritis. Our
observation of the remarkable preventive and curative effect on arthritis
using commercial yogurts containing lactobacilli, especially LGG, suggests
the need for investigation of these agents in arthritic patients.

PMID: 15284384 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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