Other species boost

Metabolic activity and proliferation increase

A similar behaviour to Akkermansia is also observed for other bacterial species such as Velionella parvula. After 7 days of activity, a time frame under which the standard planktonic culture is expected to have lost its vitality, the metabolic activity of the bacteria within culture was sustained at the same levels as timepoint 0 h of culture. Furthermore, after the addition of fresh beads, the increase of metabolic activity compared to planktonic culture without bead addition was multiplied by a factor of 10 compared to non-supplemented media at that same timepoint.

Even if this behaviour is of particular interest to those species that are hard to kick of in vitro, the capacity of the beads to increase the proliferation capacity of productive bacteria has also been assessed. And as it can be observed, the DNA concentration of bacteria at 48 hours of culturing is approximately 10% higher in planktonic culture supplemented by beads for both Lacticaseibacillus paracasei and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum.