Abstract: The cholesterol removal ability of cell-free supernatant (CFS) produced by growth of Lactobacillus reuteri DSM122460 in MRS broth was investigated. The cholesterol removal ability of L. reuteri train DSM122460 as well as L. plantarum strain ST-III during growth in MRS and the resulted CFS was assayed by o-phthalaldehyde method, respectively. In order to elucite the correlation between BSH activity and the cholesterol removal ability of the Lactobacillus strains, BSH roles in cholesterol removal were measured by heat treatment and pH adjustment. The remaining BSH activities after various treatments were measured by HPLC. The results showed that L. reuteri strain DSM122460 not only had a high ability to remove cholesterol during its growth in MRS broth, it aslo demonstrated high cholesterol reduction activity in the CFS. Beside the BSH, it was speculated there may be another effective component in the CFS with the ability to remove cholesterol. It suggested that there might be a new mechanism underlying cholesterol reduction by lactic acid bacteria.

Key words: Lactobacillus reuteri, CFS, cholesterol reduction, BSH, HPLC