Significance of fermented rice beverage on management of antibiotic associated diarrhea (AAD) on Wistar rats

Antibiotic associated diarrhoea (AAD) is caused mostly by disruption of the physiological gut microflora. One potential strategy to prevent this is the concurrent use of probiotic bacteria or yeast. Tribal populations of West Garo Hill region of Meghalaya use locally available unique microflora to prepare fermented food products whichserve as a potential source of novel probiotic organisms and bioactive compounds. In this context, here, we have evaluated the potentiality of laboratory made functional fermented rice beverage in mitigating AAD on animal models viz. Wistar rats. The animal models were administered with fermented rice beverage (test group A1), combination of indigenous Lactobacillus isolates (test group A2), a yeast isolate (test group A3), loperamide (test group STD), normal control (test group NC) and disease control (test group DC). Furthermore, various diarrhea assessment parameters were checked from each group followed by analysis of fecal microbiome, haematological parameters, histopathology of colon, liver and cecal short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) determination. NC and A1 was least affected by AAD induction with a faecal consistency score of 1 on the final day of the study. After day 10, a significant reduction (P <0.05) in the faecal water content was observed in A1, A2 and STD till day 15. Compared to the NC, a slight decrease in body weight was found in the rest of five test groups at day 5, 10 and 15. Except NC, the remaining five test groups showed a significant decrease of lactobacilli and yeast counts in faecal microbiota at 5th day. An increase in the enterococci and coliform counts indicated severe diarrheal condition but A1 reported with significant increase (P <0.05) in the population of Lactobacillus at day 15. An increase in red blood corpuscles, haemoglobin, packed cell volume, mean cell haemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration was observed. During the histopathology analysis of colon and liver, normal layers of mucosa, submucosa, muscularis and serous with absence of any abnormal changes or lesions was seen in A1. The cecal concentrations of lactate, acetate and propionate were significantly higher in A1 as compared to the other test groups. Therefore, fermented rice beverage possesses potential to be used in inhibition of antibiotic associated diarrhea with further clinical investigations