Fátima Airam Márquez- Villalobos, Hilda Lissette López-Lemus, María de Lourdes Reyes-Escogido, Joel Ramírez-Emiliano*
Hypercholesterolemia is one of the causes of the development of cardiovascular diseases, thus it is important to reduce blood cholesterol levels. There are several strategies to reduce the hypercholesterolemia such as modifying eating behavior, do exercise or to use treatment with drug, it has also been proposed the consumption of probiotics bacteria isolated from the intestinal microbiota. Probiotic bacteria can reduce cholesterol by reducing their absorption, by the action of bile salt hydrolase, by trapping the cholesterol on the bacterial membrane, by converting cholesterol to coprostanol, by inhibiting the formation of micelles and by the selective fermentation of certain foods by the intestinal microbiota. Thus, the use of probiotic bacteria is an alternative to reduce hypercholesterolemia and preventing the development of cardiovascular diseases, although the mechanisms are not completely clear.
