On Friday, February 16th 2018, Marianne van den Broek finalised her PhD about the ‘In vitro and in vivo probiotic potential of Lactobacillus spp. for otitis media’ with a public defence.
In this thesis the following questions regarding the probiotic potential of lactobacilli were addressed:
- Can lactobacilli inhibit the three main otitis media pathogens: Moraxella catarrhalis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae?
- What are important antimicrobial compounds?
- Can lactobacilli mediate more indirect mechanisms such as pathogen exclusion and the inhibition of production of inflammation markers by the otitis media pathogens?
- Can orally administered Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG transfer to URT niches and influence the local microbiota?
The PhD thesis can be found here and part of the results were recently published as a research article in ‘Beneficial Microbes’