Preliminary observations on effect of Lactobacillus sporogenes on serum lipid levels in hypercholesterolemic patients.

Short term hypolipidemic effects of oral L. sporogenes therapy (360 million spores/day in tablet form) were studied in 17 patients with type II hyperlipidemia in an open label fixed dose trial. Total serum cholesterol (330 +/- 55 mg/dl vs 226 +/- 46 mg/dl, P less than 0.001), LDL-cholesterol (267 +/- 58 mg/dl vs 173 +/- 54 mg/dl, P less than 0.001) and total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol ratios (P less than 0.001) were reduced significantly over a period of three months. HDL-cholesterol was marginally increased (43.6 +/- 7 mg/dl vs 46.8 +/- 8.9 mg/dl, P less than 0.05); however there was no change in serum triglyceride levels.