While exposure to heavy metals has decreased over the past century, the toxins remain pervasive and are still found in the air, water, soil, food, and industrial products and pose a serious risk to human health. Bioaccumulation of heavy metals can promote oxidative stress and inflammation and has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease.
New data published in Frontiers in Microbiology indicated that Lactiplantibacillus plantarum LP14, Lactobacillus crispatus LCR04, and Lactobacillus acidophilus LA12 may for their capacity to detoxify cadmium, chromium, mercury, and lead in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and reduce damage in the intestine caused by the heavy metals.
Dr. Marco Pane, Chief Science Officer at Probiotical Research and lead author on the new study, told NutraIngredients that the new work demonstrates that single-strain lactobacilli, L. plantarum LP14, L. acidophilus LA02 and L. crispatus LCR04, properly selected through a transit-realistic ladder, sequester heavy metals in the colon and restore epithelial barrier integrity ex vivo.
“The significance is broader than the strains,” said Dr. Pane. “Heavy-metal exposure is a chronic public-health condition that source control cannot resolve at the population level. Intestinal bioremediation is the missing piece of the food-safety chain. We now have the scientific basis to advance it into clinical reach.”
All three strains are commercially available, he added.
Study details
After the initial selection of the strains based on their in vitro detoxifying potential, Dr. Pane and his co-workers used the dynamic Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME) model to assess the survival, growth, and heavy metal detoxification capacity of L. plantarum LP14, L. acidophilus LA02 and L. crispatus LCR04 under gastric, small-intestinal, and colonic conditions. The researchers used the metals in their inorganic form: CdS04, CrCl3, Hg(NO3)2 and PbCl2.
The data identified strain- and metal-specific differences, with L. plantarum LP14 and L. crispatus LCR04 exhibiting strong persistence and significant reduction in the bioavailability of the heavy metals. On the other hand, L. acidophilus LA12 displayed minimal detoxification potential in the model system.
“Mechanistically, only the strains that proliferated in the colonic phase achieved substantial [heavy metal] removal, underscoring the importance of metabolic activity in situ,” wrote the researchers.
Dr. Pane and his co-workers followed this work by using a gut-ex vivo system (GEVS) to assess the strains’ ability to protect intestinal tissue from heavy metal-induced damage.
“This study is, to our knowledge, the first to employ an ex vivo intestinal model to measure the harm caused by ingested heavy metals on gut tissue and to assess probiotic amelioration of that harm,” they stated.
The data from the GEVS work showed that the heavy metals induced to intestinal damage, including signs of inflammation and disruption of the intestinal barrier function. The probiotic strains were found to protect against this damage.
“Taken together, our findings illustrate that probiotic-mediated intestinal bioremediation is a feasible and promising strategy to counteract heavy metal exposure,” wrote the researchers. “Further studies will explore the efficacy of probiotic strains in more complex settings – for instance, within the context of the native gut microbiota and/or in in vivo models – to confirm their detoxification performance and synergistic interactions in real-world scenarios. Such a probiotic approach could serve as a valuable adjunct or alternative to conventional decontamination methods, potentially offering a more natural, proactive, and less invasive means to diminish the health risks associated with environmental heavy metal burdens.”
Source: Frontiers in Microbiology, 2026, Volume 17, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2026.1821114. “Probiotic detoxification of heavy metals: functional assessment in simulated intestinal and ex vivo models”. Authors: M. Pane, et al.
