Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 28, 2016; 22(48): 10532-10544
Published online Dec 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i48.10532
Effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae or boulardii yeasts on acute stress induced intestinal dysmotility
Christine West, Andrew M Stanisz, Annette Wong, Wolfgang A Kunze
Christine West, Andrew M Stanisz, Annette Wong, Wolfgang A Kunze, McMaster Brain-Body Institute, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, ON L8N 4A6, Canada
Wolfgang A Kunze, Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada
Wolfgang A Kunze, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada
Author contributions: West C, Stanisz AM and Wong A acquired and analyzed the data; Stanisz AM performed pilot experiments; West C and Kunze WA drafted the manuscript; Kunze WA designed the research.
Supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant awarded (to Kunze W), No. 2014-05517.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Animal Research Ethics Board of McMaster University (AUP# 12-05-17).
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Christine West, MSc Candidate, BSc, McMaster Brain-Body Institute, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, 50 Charlton Street East, ON L8N 4A6, Canada. westcl2@mcmaster.ca
Telephone: +1-905-5221155 Fax: +1-905-5406593
Received: July 20, 2016
Peer-review started: July 21, 2016
First decision: August 22, 2016
Revised: September 15, 2016
Accepted: October 10, 2016
Article in press: October 10, 2016
Published online: December 28, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: The use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces boulardii yeasts as therapeutic agents were tested for their ability to reverse the intestinal discomfort caused by acute stress. Most studies investigate the role of microbes in the prevention of stress, however the yeasts showed promising acute therapeutic effects for the treatment of stress. Additionally, the residual supernatant (Snt) after centrifugation of the yeasts was able to recapitulate much of the effect of the microbes themselves. Saccharomyces yeasts or Snt may be potential probiotic therapies in the treatment of acute stress-related intestinal dysmotility.