Mitigating bone loss due to microgravity is critical for maintaining functionality. Dietary interventions that enhance bone mineralization or inhibit resorption offer a simple, low-risk approach to this problem. This study tested the efficacy of dietary synbiotics (prebiotics+probiotics) in protecting bone exposed to unloading followed by reambulation. The experiment followed a 2x2 factorial design with forty adult male rats randomly assigned to a weight loading condition (hindlimb-unloaded or normally loaded) and diet condition (synbiotic or control). Twenty rats were hindlimb-unloaded for 14 d followed by 14 d of reambulation. Rats maintained on the synbiotic diet were supplemented with fructooligosaccharides and lyophilized probiotic cultures (1x1011 CFU/g of equal parts Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactococcus lactis lactis). After 28 days, the femur, tibia, and humerus were removed and trabecular and cortical structural parameters were measured using micro-computed tomography. Results showed a significant (P<0.05) beneficial main effect of synbiotics on femoral trabecular parameters including BV/TV, Tb.Sp and Tb.Pf. The interaction of diet x load condition was significant for several measures of femoral cortical bone in the unloaded synbiotic vs. unloaded control group. These results provide evidence suggesting dietary synbiotics as a moderately protective treatment against bone loss due to skeletal unloading.
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