Case Study: Flow Cytometry for Postbiotic Enumeration
The Challenge
Postbiotics are the remaining bacterial cell components after cellular digestion. These dead cells have a number of benefits, like providing vitamins and enzymes that promote gut health. A customer is developing a a product called “Posterchild Postbiotic” which directly provides postbiotics consumers. The postbiotic product has a label claim of 250 mg or 25 billion CFU/serving heat-inactivated Lactobacillus cells. The product was formulated with 250 mg, 28 billion CFU/serving heat-inactivated Lactobacillus cells. As expected, the plate count results show <10 CFU/serving because dead cells cannot grow on the plate.
Our Approach
Our team used flow cytometry to enumerate the postbiotic sample because it is one of the only validated approaches for measuring dead and injured cells. With flow cytometry, 26 billion AFU/serving dead cells were detected.
The Solution
Using flow cytometry, we confirmed that the product not only met, but exceeded label claims. Since the cells were heat-inactivated, they are unable to grow and multiply on a plate, resulting in the original low plate count. Flow cytometry is a valid and accurate detection technique for the enumeration of postbiotics that overcomes the limitations of plate methods.
Our Team
Eurofins Microbiology Laboratories, Inc. in Madison, WI is our Center of Excellence to support probiotics and has the necessary expertise and capabilities to individually evaluate each product and ensure we are preparing the samples for accurate identification, enumeration, or contamination. We actively work with probiotic suppliers to become qualified to run their strain-specific enumeration procedures and offer them to our joint customers.
Reach out to us to learn more about how we can partner with your team!
