The viability and intestinal epithelial cell adhesion of probiotic strain combination--in vitro study.

To be effective, probiotic bacteria must exhibit a number of functional characteristics, including the resistance to gastric acidity and the ability to adhere to the intestinal epithelium. In this study, we examined in vitro the viability of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) combination after exposure to low pH, and the adhesion of LAB to Caco-2 cells during coincubation of 9 bacterial strains. To test bacterial viability, 6 commercially available products were incubated in 0.1 N HCl at pH 1.2 for 60 min. The greatest growth inhibition was noted for the non-capsulated product containing the Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain (log reduction of CFU = 6.4), and the best survival observed for the product containing 9 bacterial strains, equipped with a modern capsule made according to the Multi-Resistant Encapsulation technology (log reduction of CFU = 0.1). In the adhesion experiment, the combination of 9 bacterial strains was added to 17-day-old Caco-2 cell culture for 90 min. The greatest efficiency of adhesion was observed for the inoculum containing 5.5x10(8) CFU/mL/9.6 cm(2) of Caco-2 and the dose of probiotic bacteria of 190 cells per one Caco-2 cell. As a result, approximately 157 bacterial cells adhered to one Caco-2 cell. The results indicate that the combination of 9 bacterial strains in the examined product is characterized as highly adhesive.