Abstract
Mucus is the habitat for the microorganisms, bacteria and yeast that form the commensal flora. Mucins, the main macromolecules of mucus, and more specifically, the glycans that cover them, play essential roles in microbial gastrointestinal colonization. Probiotics and pathogens must also colonize mucus to have lasting positive or deleterious effects. The question of which mucin-harboured glycan motifs favour the adhesion of specific microorganisms remains very poorly studied. In the current study, a simple test based on the detection of fluorescent-labeled microorganisms raised against microgram amounts of mucins spotted on nitrocellulose was developed. The adhesion of various probiotic, commensal and pathogenic microorganisms was evaluated on a panel of human purified gastrointestinal mucins and compared with that of commercially available pig gastric mucins (PGM) and of mucins secreted by the colonic cancer cell line HT29-MTX. The latter two proved to be very poor indicators of adhesion capacity on intestinal mucins. Our results show that the nature of the sialylated cores of O-glycans, determined by MALDI MS-MS analysis, potentially enables sialic acid residues to modulate the adhesion of microorganisms either positively or negatively. Other identified factors affecting the adhesion propensity were O-glycan core types and the presence of blood group motifs. This test should help to select probiotics with enhanced adhesion capabilities as well as deciphering the role of specific mucin glycotopes on microbial adhesion.
Highlights
According to the FAO/WHO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations/World Health Organisation), probiotics are live microorganisms which, when taken in adequate amounts, can provide health benefits to the host [1]
We developed a rapid and sensitive test for the characterization of the binding capacities of probiotic microorganisms to human purified mucins spotted on a nitrocellulose membrane, allowing us to compare the adhesion of probiotics to mucins with that of commensal bacteria known to colonize mucus and pathogenic bacteria known to interact with the epithelial mucosa and/or mucins
This means that intestinal cells are usually not directly exposed to probiotic or commensal intestinal flora
Summary
According to the FAO/WHO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations/World Health Organisation), probiotics are live microorganisms which, when taken in adequate amounts, can provide health benefits to the host [1]. Probiotics are known to exert numerous beneficial effects, helping to prevent or treat a variety of health problems or diseases, such as diarrhea caused by infections or antibiotics, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and allergic disorders. They play a role in reducing the incidence of common upper respiratory tract infections and help to manage vaginal infections. They are presumed to modulate the commensal intestinal flora. Short chain fatty acids, such as formic, acetic, propionic, butyric and lactic acids, are produced by probiotics during carbohydrate catabolism and play an important role in the decrease of pH that inhibits the growth of enteric pathogens [9,10]
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