Dietary components influence tissue-associated lactobacilli in the mouse stomach

Abstract

Conventional mice fed commercially prepared pelleted food, or a laboratory-prepared food consisting of casein, cornflour, bran, vitamins, and minerals, harboured a layer of lactobacilli on the nonsecretory epithelium of the stomach. In contrast, the majority of mice fed the laboratory-prepared diet to which corn, sunflower seed, or codliver oil had been added lacked a iactobacillus layer in the stomach. Analysis of the fatty acid content of the various diets, and feeding mice diets of known fatty acid composition, led to the conclusion that the relative amounts of palmitic and oleic acid in the food can influence the number of tissue-associated lactobacilli in the mouse stomach.