Kriti Ghatani*
Hyperlipidemia and its associated health risks have posed a great threat to the mankind, globally. Hyperlipidemia refers to a group of inherited and acquired; chronic and progressive metabolic disorder wherein, the plasma or serum contains higher than 90 percentile Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL-C), Total Cholesterol (TC), Triglyceride levels (TG), or lipoprotein levels in comparison to the general population, or 10 percentile lower values of HDL in comparison to the general populace. Although, numerous drugs are available in the market for mitigating hyperlipidemia, however they come with side effects and high cost. The mankind has shifted their focus on alternate, safe and cost effective remedies to regulate serum lipid levels. Probiotics with bile salt hydrolase activity are one among the safe alternative remedies to treat such metabolic disorders. Bile salt hydrolase, present in gut microorganisms is the key enzyme responsible for the efficient lowering of serum cholesterol levels by the deconjugation of host derived conjugated bile acids into deconjugated forms that are readily expelled from the body. To make up for the lost bile acids, cholesterol is used up to synthesize bile acids, thereby lowering serum cholesterol levels. Apart from this, BSH activity provides defense to the BSH harboring microorganism from the hostile bile environment in GIT. This fact thus makes it important to list out the assessment of BSH activity while selecting probiotics. This review focuses on the role of BSH activity among probiotics and its role in mitigating hyperlipidemia.