The mitogenic activity of whole cells of 18 strains of lactobacilli toward splenocytes from C57BL/6 mice was studied. Although most of the strains showed no mitogenicity, L. fermentum and L. Plantarum were capable of increasing the incorporation of 3H-thymidine (3H-TdR) into splenocytes. Both strains were also able to stimulate the incorporation of 3H-TdR into splenocytes that had been treated with rabbit antithymocyte serum in the presence of complement in order to kill T-lymphocytes, but did not stimulate the incorporation into thymocytes. These results indicate that L. fermentum and L. plantarum cells act on the B-lymphocyte population of splenocytes.
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Shimizu et al. (1981) studied this question.