Food microbiologyThe correlation between surface hydrophobicity and adherence of Bifidobacterium strains from centenarians’ faeces
Introduction
The gastrointestinal tract is a complex ecosystem connecting resident micro-organisms and cells of various phenotypes with epithelial wall, expressing complicated metabolic activities. As predominant inhabitant in human intestine and promising probiotics in dairy industry [1], bifidobacteria have been claimed to produce various health-promoting effects to host [2], [3], [4]. They are 53–87% in total anaerobic bacteria from intestinal micro-flora of healthy centenarians, an 107–108 CFU/g faeces as have been isolated and identified [5]. Adhesion to enterocytes is one of important properties by which bifidobacteria offer beneficial effects to human body. High adhesion of a strain to the intestinal epithelial cells is proposed to be one of selection criteria for optimal probiotic strains [6]. The adhesion ability is a prerequisite for bacteria colonization; meanwhile, it is essential for balance of intestinal micro-flora, intestinal bacterial enzyme activity and stabilization of intestinal permeability [7]. It may further contribute to competitive exclusions against enteropathogens [8].
Many researchers have been extensively focused on specific interactions between bacterial adhesin and receptor [9]. However, reports showed that adhesion was greatly affected by the composition and structure of the bacteria and interacting surface. The mechanism of this interaction is controversial in this research domain all along [10], [11]. The physical and chemical characteristics of bacteria cell surface depend mainly on surface hydrophobicity [12]. Hydrophobic interactions are entropically ruled by strong and broad ranges of attractive forces between non-polar surfaces in water solutes [13]. The relationship between the surface hydrophobicity and the adhesion ability for bifidobacteria may help understand and explain their beneficial effects on the host. To date, no extensive studies on the correlation between them have been found.
The objective of this study was to deal with the relations between surface hydropbobicity and adherence to enterocyte-like cells during growth of bifidobacteria. Meanwhile, it also provided a reasonable and effective method for screening bifidobacteria with high hydrophobicity and adhesion capability.
Section snippets
Micro-organism and culture media
The bifidobacteria used in the study were isolated from healthy centenarians’ faeces according to Denis Roy's methods [14] from the volunteers inhabited in Bama longevity villages, the fifth macrobian district in the world in Guangxi Province of China. All the bifidobacteria were identified with API 20A (BioMérieux, French) according to instructions (Table 1). The micro-organisms were grown on MRS/agar (Oxoid Ltd., Basingstoke, England) supplemented with l-cysteine hydrochloride (0.5 g/L). The
Surface hydrophobicity of bifidobacteria
Twenty-three bifidobacteria strains were compared for cell surface hydrophobicity by determining microbial adhesion to hydrocarbons (Table 2 and Fig. 1). Bifidobacteria strains had shown significant differences for surface hydrophobicity among them. Among 23 strains, 56.52% of bifidobacteria indicated lower values for surface hydrophobicity, only 13.04% reached 20% even above in hydrophobicity. Strains binding to xylene with high surface hydrophobicity illuminated that significant differences
Discussion
Generally, the cell-adhesion of bifidobacteria to intestinal tracts is the prerequisite for bacterial colonization and proliferation. The adhesion of bifidobacteria to surface of intestinal epithelial cells has been known to depend on bacteria concentration and interaction time so on [17]; meanwhile, hydrophobicity has been mentioned as an indicator for adherence ability [12]. Therefore, a good method for screening potentially adhesive bifidobacteria can be of an importance in many research
Acknowledgements
Financial support was obtained from National 863 Program (2002AA248041) of PR China.
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