Abstract
Three Lactobacillus plantarum strains ATG-K2, ATG-K6, and ATG-K8 were isolated from Kimchi, a Korean traditional fermented food, and their probiotic potentials were examined. All three strains were free of antibiotic resistance, hemolysis, and biogenic amine production and therefore assumed to be safe, as supported by whole genome analyses. These strains demonstrated several basic probiotic functions including a wide range of antibacterial activity, bile salt hydrolase activity, hydrogen peroxide production, and heat resistance at 70°C for 60 s. Further studies of antimicrobial activities against Candida albicans and Gardnerella vaginalis revealed growth inhibitory effects from culture supernatants, coaggregation effects, and killing effects of the three probiotic strains, with better efficacy toward C. albicans. In vitro treatment of bacterial lysates of the probiotic strains to the RAW264.7 murine macrophage cell line resulted in innate immunity enhancement via IL-6 and TNF-α production without lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment and anti-inflammatory effects via significantly increased production of IL-10 when co-treated with LPS. However, the degree of probiotic effect was different for each strain as the highest TNF-α and the lowest IL-10 production by the RAW264.7 cell were observed in the K8 lysate treated group compared to the K2 and K6 lysate treated groups, which may be related to genomic differences such as chromosome size (K2: 3,034,884 bp, K6: 3,205,672 bp, K8: 3,221,272 bp), plasmid numbers (K2: 3, K6 and K8: 1), or total gene numbers (K2: 3,114, K6: 3,178, K8: 3,186). Although more correlative inspections to connect genomic information and biological functions are needed, genomic analyses of the three strains revealed distinct genomic compositions of each strain. Also, this finding suggests genome level analysis may be required to accurately identify microorganisms. Nevertheless, L. plantarum ATG-K2, ATG-K6, and ATG-K8 demonstrated their potential as probiotics for mucosal health improvement in both microbial and immunological contexts.
Highlights
Mucosa or mucosal sites are external tissues of animals covered with mucus, which are exposed to lifespan-ensuring and/or transient microorganisms known as commensal microbiota
Carbohydrate Fermentation Abilities of L. plantarum Strains Fermentation patterns of carbohydrate sources by each L. plantarum strain are noted in Supplementary Table S1
Notable differences in fermentation capability were observed: K6 weakly fermented L-arabinose resulting in a green to blue colorization transition of the API indicator medium instead of yellow, while K2 and K8 were completely negative; K6 fermented raffinose and melizetose while K8 only fermented melizetose, while K2 could not ferment either of the carbohydrates; and turanose was fermented by K6 and K8
Summary
Mucosa or mucosal sites are external tissues of animals covered with mucus, which are exposed to lifespan-ensuring and/or transient microorganisms known as commensal microbiota. BV is caused by (1) disruption of vaginal microbiota due to overdosed antibiotics treatment, stress, hormonal changes, and/or physical damage, (2) resultant loss of hydrogen peroxide producing lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, and (3) increased pH in the vagina that allows the growth of other opportunistic pathogens (Sobel, 1997) To treat such microbial infections in mucosal sites, a probiotic approach is one of the important measures besides chemical or antibiotic treatments that may restore mucosal microbiota to a healthy distribution and/or eliminate certain pathogens in a microbiome environment. With mechanistic criteria focused on treating and/or preventing mucosal infection as mentioned above, Lactobacillus plantarum ATG-K2, ATG-K6, and ATG-K8 were isolated in the present study from Kimchi, a Korean traditional fermented vegetable, and examined for their safety and functionalities in biologic and genomic analyses as potential probiotics for improving mucosal health
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