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The objective of this study was to investigate the in vitro immunomodulatory effect of milk whey through enzymatic hydrolysis, microbial fermentation and two-stage hydrolytic reactions (enzymatic and microbial reactions) by analysing cytokine profiles. Results indicated that the milk whey sample fermented by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens M1 and two-stage hydrolytic reactions (hydrolysed by Alcalase and then fermented by L. kefiranofaciens M1) could significantly induce the production of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α and IL-12 compared with the milk whey control and enzymatic treatments. Further characterisation of the immunomodulatory factor by membrane filtration and mutanolysin hydrolysation, the stimulatory activity for IL-12 and TNF-α production was found to be reduced and to be correlated positively with the cell wall components in L. kefiranofaciens M1. In addition, Th2-polarised splenocytes revealed that L. kefiranofaciens M1 had both IL-12 inducing and IL-4 repressing activities. These results suggested that L. kefiranofaciens M1 could direct the Th1/Th2 balance toward Th1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this study were to microencapsulate both probiotics and culture filtrates by spray drying to maintain enzyme activity and probiotic viability during storage. Thus, probiotics and culture filtrates from lao-chao were microencapsulated by spray drying with various outlet air temperatures, and the milk-clotting activity, survival of probiotics and physical properties of the microcapsules were determined. The end purpose was to create easy-to-use probiotic Kou Woan Loa cultures. In the near future, manufacturing probiotic Kou Woan Loa could be carried out by simply mixing milk with 5% microcapsules and waiting for 1 h for coagulation, which would be time saving and convenient. The present study has shown that microencapsulation of Lactobacillus acidophilus BCRC 14079, Bifidobacterium longum BCRC 14605 and culture filtrates from lao-chao by spray drying could provide a good protection for both milk-clotting enzymes and probiotics. The average of microcapsules size and density was 10 µm and 1.68 g/cm3, respectively. An increase in the microencapsulation efficiency of microcapsules and lower water activity was found when the outlet air temperature was raised. However, the survival of L. acidophilus and B. longum was reduced as the outlet air temperature increased. The numbers of probiotics were maintained above the recommended therapeutic minimum (107 cfu/g) throughout storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]