Effects of minas frescal cheese enriched with Lactobacillus acidophilus La-05 on bone health in a preclinical model of chronic kidney disease.

Objectives: Milk products are good vehicles for probiotics due to their physical-chemical characteristics, improving probiotic survival in food and in the gastrointestinal tract. Lactobacillus acidophilus La-05 is known to modulate gut microbiota, and probiotics have been reported to influence mineral absorption by improving the gut microbiota profile, highlighting the gut-bone axis. This intervention could be relevant in nephrology due to the high prevalence of renal osteodystrophy in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Given the potential role of gut microbiota in bone metabolism, this is the first study to evaluate the effects of consuming Minas Frescal cheese enriched with L. acidophilus La-05 on bone parameters in nephrectomized Wistar rats.

Methods: Rats were divided into Sham and CKD groups receiving conventional or probiotic-enriched Minas cheese (20 g/day) for 6 weeks. Bone mineral density (BMD) of the femur and tibia was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and femoral biomechanical properties (maximum force, breaking strength, flexural modulus) were assessed using a three-point bending test.

Results: CKD significantly reduced tibial (0.08 ± 0.01 vs. 0.11 ± 0.01 g/cm³, p=0.0147) and femoral (0.14 ± 0.01 vs. 0.16 ± 0.01 g/cm³, p=0.0217) BMD in rats, and probiotic supplementation did not mitigate this loss. Probiotic intervention was associated with a significant decrease in femur length in CKD rats (3.74 ± 0.14 vs. 3.92 ± 0.10 mm, p=0.0221).

Conclusions: Short-term probiotic supplementation in a cheese matrix did not improve BMD or femoral biomechanics, suggesting a limited effect on CKD-related bone loss.