ArticleJournal of nutritional science2013
Oral intake of heat-killed Lactobacillus plantarum L-137 decreases the incidence of upper respiratory tract infection in healthy subjects with high levels of psychological stress.
Article in Journal of nutritional science, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Modulation of gut microbiota protects against viral respiratory tract infections: a systematic review of animal and clinical studies.European journal of nutrition · 2021Pooled it
- Meta-Analysis: Randomized Trials ofFrontiers in immunology · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Postbiotics: An Overview and Recommendations for Improved Reporting.Molecular nutrition & food research · 2026Review
- Additive effect of mixtures of multiple strains combining the effects of single strains on human gut microbiotaBioscience of microbiota, food and health · 2025Article
- Beneficial effect of heat-killed Lactiplantibacillus plantarum L-137 on intestinal barrier function of rat small intestinal epithelial cells.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Immunomodulatory activity of heat-killedFood science & nutrition · 2024Article
- Local and Systemic Effects of Bioactive Food Ingredients: Is There a Role for Functional Foods to Prime the Gut for Resilience?Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- The Rationale for Sulforaphane Favourably Influencing Gut Homeostasis and Gut-Organ Dysfunction: A Clinician's Hypothesis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- The Potential of Probiotics as Ingestible Adjuvants and Immune Modulators for Antiviral Immunity and Management of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Protective Effect of NovelMicroorganisms · 2023Article
- Implication of Paraprobiotics in Age-Associated Gut Dysbiosis and Neurodegenerative Diseases.Neuromolecular medicine · 2023Review
- Overview of anti-viral effects of probiotics via immune cells in pre-, mid- and post-SARS-CoV2 era.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- From a cell model to a fish trial: Immunomodulatory effects of heat-killed LactiplantibacillusFrontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Effect of a Novel E3 Probiotics Formula on the Gut Microbiome in Atopic Dermatitis Patients: A Pilot Study.Biomedicines · 2022Article
- The Beneficial Role of ProbioticFrontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Beneficial Effect of Heat-KilledFrontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Review
- Bioactive compounds and probiotics-a ray of hope in COVID-19 management.Food science and human wellness · 2021Review
- Heat-killedBioscience of microbiota, food and health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The immunomodulatory effects of live or non-viable lactic acid bacteria have been extensively investigated. We reported that oral intake of heat-killed Lactobacillus plantarum L-137 (HK L-137) augmented innate and acquired immunity in mice and human subjects. To examine the effects of HK L-137 intake on upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) symptoms and immune functions in human subjects, a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel study was conducted in subjects with high psychological stress levels. A total of seventy-eight healthy subjects (thirty-three men and forty-five women; mean age 50·6 years) with scores of >41 on eighteen-item subscales of psychological distress in the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire were randomly assigned to receive a tablet containing HK L-137 (10 mg) or a placebo tablet daily for 12 weeks. The URTI symptoms were rated once daily on the validated twenty-one-item Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey-21. Immune functions, such as concanavalin A-induced proliferation and percentages of interferon (IFN)-γ- and IL-4-producing CD4 T cells of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and serum IFN-β concentrations were measured every 4 weeks. URTI incidence was significantly lower in the HK L-137 group than in the control group. URTI incidence, duration and severity, and duration of medication showed significant negative correlations with duration of HK L-137 intake. The percentage change from baseline of concanavalin A-induced proliferation of PBMC was significantly greater in the HK L-137 group than in the control group. These findings suggest that daily HK L-137 intake can decrease URTI incidence in healthy subjects, possibly through augmentation of immune functions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.