Study of Protective Effects of Saccharomayces boulardii on Salmonella typhimurium Liver Lesions in Rats

Salmonellosis is an infectious disease in all animals species caused by a number of different species of Salmonellae and manifested clinically by pre-acute septicemia or enteritis. Several recent investigations suggested that some probiotics such as Saccharomayces boulardii can restrain multiplicity of enteropathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella invitro and it is possible to prevent pathological changes caused by Salmonellae invivo.This study was conducted to investigate the protective effects of Saccharomyces boulardii on liver pathologic lesions of Salmonella typhimurium in rats. Conducting the study, thirty male rats were divided into three groups (A,B,C). Rats in group B and C received 1 ml of saline contained 107 and 108 CFU of Saccharomyces boulardii orally for 5 days. Respectively animals in group A (as control) received only 1 ml normal saline. On day five, all animals were challenged orally with 107 Salmonella typhimurium. On day 10, first, all rats challenged with bacterium, and then they were euthanized. Specimens of liver were fixed in 10%buffered formalin solution for histological examinations and translated to pathologic laboratory. The results of liver histopathologic examinations were investigated by fisher exact test and showed areas of focal necrosis in 6 control rats compared withrats in experiment groups that didn’t show any marked pathological changes in their livers. The results of this study indicate that Sacharomyces boulardii has protective effects on Salmonella typhimurium infection in rat and histological examinations confirm the obtained results.