Table 1.

Summary of recent microbial encapsulation and delivery studies.

Bacteria	Target site/purpose	Material platform	Release mechanism	Citation
Bacillus subtilis natto	Intestines	Carboxymethyl cellulose + chitosan + alginate	pH-responsive swelling and ionic crosslinks	[44]
Ligilactobacillus salivarius	Gut	Chitosan-alginate layer-by-layer encapsulation	pH-responsive ionic crosslinks	[47]
BCG	Lungs	Chitosan and chitosan-alginate beads	pH responsive ionic crosslinks	[32]
E. coli		Alginate + PEO + surfactant electrospun fibers	n/a (storage capabilities only)	[41]
L. rhamnosus	Intestines	Electrospun pullulan and PLGA fibers	Hydrolysis-degradable PLGA outer layers	[40]
L. rhamnosus	Wound healing	Hyaluronic acid with polysaccharides PF127 and FD hydrogel	Degradable schiff-base crosslinks	[46]
L. rhamnosus		Hyaluronic acid hydrogel	Redox-responsive degradable disulfide crosslinks	[45]
L. plantarum	Intestines	Chitosan-coated agar-gelatin particles	pH-responsive release in intestines	[66]
L. casei	Gut	PVA air-dried films, with additives (MRS broth, glycerol, NaCMC)	Burst release upon rehydration (in conjunction with enteric or other delivery capsule)	[43]
B. adolescentis (anaerobic)	Gut	PVA + skim milk air-dried films	n/a (encapsulation evaluated only)	[67]
L. casei	Gut	Alginate microspheres with calcium chloride crosslinks	Simulated intestinal fluid breaks ion crosslinks	[42]