The development of functional foods containing probiotic bacteria has become increasingly relevant to improve and maintain health. However, this is often limited to dairy food matrices given the complexity involved in maintaining a stable system together with high microbial viability in matrices such as juices. The objective of this study was to develop and characterize sodium alginate capsules loaded with Lactobacillus gasseri ATCC^® 19992 ™ (LG). Cell viability under in vitro gastrointestinal conditions and during storage in apple juice were evaluated. The capsules were prepared by ionic gelation and an emulsification process was performed as pretreatment using two homogenization methods: magnetic stirring (AM) and Ultraturrax^® rotor-stator homogenizer (UT). Cell viability after encapsulation was similar in the two processes: 65%. At the end of the in vitro gastrointestinal evaluation, the non-encapsulated probiotic cells did not show any viability, while the AM system was able to retain 100% of its viability and the UT retained 79.14%. The morphology of the capsules consisted of a continuous and homogeneous surface. Cell viability of LG encapsulated in apple juice stored at 4 °C for 21 days was 77% for AM, 55.43% for UT, and 63.10% for free LG.

This study was aimed to prepare and characterize capsules loaded with Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), evaluating cell viability under gastrointestinal in vitro conditions and during storage in yogurt and apple juice, an alternative to traditional probiotic foods for people who are lactose intolerant. The capsules were prepared by ionic gelation, with an emulsification process as pretreatment. Cell viability of encapsulated LGG was evaluated after two different homogenization processes: magnetic stirring (AM) and Ultraturrax^® homogenizer (UT). The system with the best relationship between viability and morphology was UT, which produced a viability of 85.80%. During in vitro evaluation, the capsules provided higher protection than free cells, up to 100% of cell viability. The morphology of capsules of both systems displayed a continuous and homogeneous surface. The cell viability of the encapsulated probiotics added in apple juice stored for 22 days at 4 °C was 86.16% for AM and 100% for UT, while the viability of free cells was 80.50%. In natural yogurt, the cell viability of the probiotics encapsulated stored 30 days at 4 °C was 100% for AM, 100% for UT, and 92.68% for free cells. This study suggests an alternative to preserve probiotic bacteria in a potential functional food.

Introduction: Consuming hypercaloric diets during pregnancy induces metabolic, immune, and maternal intestinal dysbiosis disorders. These conditions are transferred to the offspring through the placenta and breastfeeding, increasing susceptibility to metabolic diseases. We investigated the effect of L. rhamnosus GG supplementation on offspring maternally programmed with a hypercaloric diet. Methods: Our study involved sixteen female Wistar rats aged ten weeks, which were divided into four groups based on their diets: control (Ctrl), cafeteria (CAF), control + probiotic (PRO), and cafeteria + probiotic (CPRO). The control + probiotic and cafeteria + probiotic groups received a daily oral administration of 250 μL of L. rhamnosus GG cell suspension (equivalent to 10⁹ UFC) for nine weeks. The body weight of the animals was recorded weekly, and their food intake was monitored every 24 h. An oral glucose tolerance test was conducted on the offspring at seven weeks of age. At the ninth week of age, animals were euthanized, and blood, tissues, and organs were collected. Results: Maternal supplementation with L. rhamnosus GG decreased food intake and the average birth weight, improved glucose sensitivity, and lowered the levels of LDL, cholesterol, triglycerides, and mesenteric adipose tissue in offspring compared with the control and cafeteria groups. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that supplementing with LGG during maternal programming could protect offspring from metabolic disruptions caused by a hypercaloric maternal diet.

Introduction: Maternal overweight and obesity during pregnancy have been shown to have multiple negative effects on the mother's health, which can even affect the infant's growth by increasing weight gain and altering various indicators, such as weight for age, length for age and weight for length. While breast milk on the other hand reduces these risks, and it’s the best and most complete food for the newborn. It’s a dynamic fluid capable of being modified to meet the needs of each stage of the newborn, but despite this capacity and the fact that maternal body mass index can have an impact on its components, through complex biological mechanisms, it manages to reduce the negative effects accumulated during pregnancy and even promotes a healthy state in the baby. In a country like Mexico, where overweight and obesity affect a large part of the population, it is important to study their causes and which could be the effect of this increased maternal overweight during pregnancy and lactation on newborns. Objective: Identify the alterations associated with increased maternal body mass index during pregnancy and breastfeeding on mothers' health and their possible effect on the growth of the newborn during the first six months of life. Material and methods: This was a prospective cohort study. Forty-two healthy binomials (mother and child), without problems during delivery and without serious illnesses during the breastfeeding period, were included. Maternal body mass index at the beginning of pregnancy allowed us to create two comparison groups between mothers: one with adequate weight, another with overweight or obesity. Follow-up was carried out once a month during the first six months of life, evaluating the somatometric development of mothers and children. All mothers completed the six-month period of exclusive breastfeeding. Results: There were differences between both groups of women. The one that included overweight and obese women compared to the group of women with adequate weight had a higher number of pregnancies, abortions, plasma glucose levels in the third trimester of pregnancy, and a lower number of prenatal control visits and plasma platelet levels (all with p<0.05). Regarding the baby's growth, there was a difference between the weight for length classification at 60-, 120-, 150- and 180-day follow-ups. The group to which the mother was assigned with respect to her body mass index at the beginning of pregnancy (adequate weight group and overweight/obese group) was the only factor associated with the risk of the baby being overweight according to weight for length indicator at the 180-day follow-up, with an OR = 5.2 (95%CI 1.02-26.59). Conclusions: Maternal overweight and obesity during pregnancy have a negative effect on the mother's health and baby's weight gain in its weight-for-length classification during the first six months of life. Although breastfeeding has been shown to have a positive effect on the growth of the baby, exposure to a higher maternal body mass index during pregnancy triggers important metabolic alterations that promote the development of diseases. It is important to establish weight control guidelines in women who wish to become pregnant to reduce the negative effects on the mother and offspring.

The global obesity epidemic is expanding at an alarming rate, posing significant health risks for women of reproductive age due to immediate pregnancy complications and adverse long-term effects on offspring. Consequently, several non-pharmacological strategies have been proposed to mitigate these impacts. Therefore, we hypothesized that the combined application of the probiotic Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) and enriched environment (EE) will result in improved metabolic and histopathologic findings within a model of maternal obesity, surpassing the efficacy of individual therapeutic strategies. Using nulliparous Wistar rats, LGG was administered before, during, and after gestation, while EE was implemented during pregnancy and lactation. LGG supplementation and an enriched environment separately improved blood triacylglycerols. The enriched environment was more effective in reducing the effects of maternal obesity, even lessening liver damage observed in obese subjects in the form of vacuolar infiltrates. The results obtained suggest a potential functional interaction in this combined model, and the findings indicate that LGG may have influenced the modulation of enriched environment effects on metabolic parameters. Diet, probiotic supplementation, and environmental setting during the perinatal period have specific effects on biochemical and tissular parameters, establishing their descriptive role as non-pharmacological intervention strategies and underscoring the need for mechanistic studies to elucidate the biological pathways underlying these effects.