What are Lab4, Lab4B and Lab4P?
Lab4 and Lab4B are lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that have been isolated from the gut flora of healthy humans and then screened for appropriate probiotic characteristics, ranging from resistance to stomach and bile acids, to robust capability for large-scale in-vitro cultivation and commercialisation.
The Lab4 consortium combines four strains of lactic acid bacteria isolated from human gut flora – two strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus, one Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis and a Bifidobacterium bifidum.
The Lab4B consortium also combines four strains of lactic acid bacteria that have been specifically designated to reflect the gut of newborn babies and infants. This combination contains the same Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis and Bifidobacterium bifidum as the Lab4 consortium, but contains Lactobacillus salivarius and Lactobacillus paracasei instead of the two Lactobacillus acidophilus strains.
Since their inception, the Lab4 and Lab4B consortia have been the subject of more than 10 major human clinical trials as well as over 100 basic and mechanistic scientific investigations. Most of this work has been published in peer-reviewed journals.
Lab4P comprises the four core Lab4 strains with Lactobacillus plantarum, an additional strain of live bacteria native to the human digestive tract that has been shown to help support weight loss.
