|
|
||||||||
1 Functional Foods Forum, Department of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
2 Department of Environmental Engineering and Biotechnology, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland
3 Danisco Innovations, Kantvik, Finland
Correspondence
Satu Vesterlund
satu.vesterlund{at}utu.fi
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| INTRODUCTION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
As the microbiota covering the intestinal epithelium has a protective role in preventing colonization of ingested bacteria, certain bacterial strains belonging to the healthy intestinal microbiota can be isolated and used as probiotics. Probiotics are live micro-organisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host (WHO, 2001
). There are several reports showing that specific probiotic strains protect against gastrointestinal infections (Gorbach et al., 1987
; Saavedra et al., 1994
; Vanderhoof et al., 1999
). Different mechanisms for this have been suggested, such as overall reduction of the gut pH, a direct antagonism against pathogens (production of antimicrobial components such as hydrogen peroxide and bacteriocins), competition for the same binding sites as pathogens, stimulation of the immune system and competition for nutrients (Collins & Gibson, 1999
).
The aim of the present study was to assess whether Staph. aureus can adhere to healthy human colonic mucus and whether adhesion and viability of potentially adherent Staph. aureus can be reduced by specific lactic acid bacteria; a preliminary investigation was made of the possible mechanisms for such effects.
| METHODS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
Adhesion assay.
After overnight incubation the mucus-coated microtitre plate wells were washed three times with 250 µl HEPES-Hanks buffer. Then radiolabelled Staph. aureus bacteria were added to the wells in a volume of 100 µl (in competition assays in a volume of 50 µl, i.e. 50 µl of Staph. aureus incubated alone or together with 50 µl of LAB). Four parallel wells were used in each experiment. Bacteria were allowed to adhere for 1 h at 37 °C and the wells were washed three times with 250 µl HEPES-Hanks buffer to remove the nonadherent bacteria. In exclusion assays LAB were incubated first with the mucus, then washed away and followed by incubation with radiolabelled Staph. aureus. Similarly in displacement assays radiolabelled Staph. aureus was incubated first with the mucus, then washed away and followed by incubation with LAB. The bacteria bound to mucus were released and lysed with 1 % SDS/0.1 M NaOH by incubation at 60 °C, followed by measurement of radioactivity by liquid scintillation. Sal. enterica serovar Typhimurium was used as a negative control in adhesion assays. The adhesion ratio (%) of bacteria was calculated by comparing the radioactivity of the adhered bacteria to that of the added bacteria.
Viability of adherent bacteria.
The bioluminescent indicator strain has been used earlier in the screening of antimicrobial substances produced by LAB against Staph. aureus (Vesterlund et al., 2004
). In short, this indicator strain allowed stable light production since it harboured luxAB genes responsible for light production as well as luxCDE genes responsible for the production of the substrate (long-chain fatty aldehyde) for the reaction. The effect of adherent LAB on the viability of adherent Staph. aureus was determined in a competition assay. This ensured that the number of adherent Staph. aureus was the same regardless of the presence or absence of LAB. After adhesion and washings, the wells were covered either with HEPES-Hanks or with LB supplemented with 1 % glucose. HEPES-Hanks was used as it is used in adhesion assays, whereas LB supplemented with glucose allows the effect of available nutrients on viability to be observed. Results were calculated after 2 h incubation by comparing the viability of the sample to the viability of the adherent Staph. aureus incubated without LAB.
Antimicrobial substances produced by LAB.
The production of antimicrobial substances by those strains which were able to reduce viability of Staph. aureus was studied. A newly developed assay was used for this purpose (Vesterlund et al., 2004
). This assay allows detection of organic acids, hydrogen peroxide or bacteriocins produced by LAB. In short, LAB were grown as described above and the culture supernatants were collected by centrifugation, filter-sterilized (0.22 µm pore size) and supplemented with erythromycin. Erythromycin was used as the used indicator strain carries an erythromycin resistance marker. When the production of hydrogen peroxide and bacteriocins was determined, the supernatants were neutralized to pH 7.2 with 4 M NaOH and phosphate buffer (pH 7.2; 0.1 M phosphate final concentration). To determine possible production of hydrogen peroxide by LAB, the supernatants were treated with catalase; to determine possible effects of bacteriocins, the supernatants were treated with proteinase K (both enzymes were purchased from Sigma and used at a concentration of 1 mg ml1). MRS was used as a negative control and nisin (10 IU ml1) as a positive control in the assay and they were treated in a similar way as supernatants.
Determination of maximum number of adhered bacteria on mucus and dissociation constants of bacteria
Theory.
MichaelisMenten-type dissociation kinetic models have been used to describe adhesion kinetics of bacteria (Lee et al., 2000
). Briefly, the equation:
|
|
|
|
Hence, plots of 1/ex against 1/x give straight lines, in which the intercepts on the ordinate give the values of 1/em and those on the abscissa give the values of 1/kd.
Assay.
The adhesion assay was performed with twofold dilution series from each bacterium and followed the protocol described above.
Statistical analysis.
Pair-wise Student's t-test was used to determine the significance (P<0.05) of differences between the control and the samples. Results shown are from three or four independent experiments.
| RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Antimicrobial substances produced by LAB
Supernatants of Lb. reuteri, Lc. lactis and P. freudenreichii were collected, neutralized and treated with catalase or proteinase K. Proteinase K treatment did not cause recovery of bioluminescence when compared to non-proteinase-treated but neutralized supernatant, indicating that LAB were not producing bacteriocins against Staph. aureus. However, either catalase treatment or neutralization caused recovery, indicating that hydrogen peroxide and organic acids had antimicrobial activity against Staph. aureus.
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
As Staph. aureus has been found to adhere to nasal mucin (Shuter et al., 1996
), we hypothesized here that adhesion to intestinal mucus, of which the main components are mucins, would be possible as well. Moreover, in earlier studies several bacteria have been found to adhere to intestinal mucin oligosaccharides (Moncada et al., 2003
). In the present study we used a model based on human intestinal mucus obtained from resected colonic tissue to assess whether Staph. aureus adheres to mucus. Human cell-lines Caco-2 and HT-29 do not produce mucus and the mucus-producing cell line HT-29-MTX (Lesuffleur et al., 1990
) produces mainly mucins with gastric immunoreactivity (MUC3 and MUC5C) and only few mucins with colonic immunoreactivity (MUC2 and MUC4) (Lesuffleur et al., 1993
). Intestinal epithelial cells offer an important model for studying adhesion of bacteria to intestinal areas without a mucus layer, such as Peyer's patches, or areas where the mucus is eroded due to disease, but they can not be used as models for adhesion to mucus. Another advantage of the use of mucus is that the colon's own mucosa-associated microbiota is present and its effect on adhesion is also taken into account. A drawback is the availability of the mucus and also the need to process it immediately.
Here we show for the first time that Staph. aureus can adhere to human colonic mucus but can be displaced by specific LAB. Lb. rhamnosus GG, Lc. lactis subsp. lactis and P. freudenreichii subsp. shermanii were able to displace Staph. aureus from human colonic mucus by 3944 %. Interestingly, the displacement capability was restricted to the LAB with relatively high adhesion ability, Lb. rhamnosus GG, Lc. lactis subsp. lactis and P. freudenreichii subsp. shermanii JS, with adhesion ratios of 11.5 %, 10.1 % and 11.3 %, respectively (Table 2
). Mathematical modelling including determination of the maximum number of adhered bacteria on mucus (em) and the binding affinity (kd) to mucus as well as measurement of viability of adherent Staph. aureus were used to explain the mechanism of displacement. Staph. aureus showed the third highest em among the tested bacteria. Only Lb. plantarum and Lc. lactis had higher em values. This also explained the relatively high binding of Staph. aureus to mucus. However, the binding affinity of Staph. aureus to mucus was only moderate (7.7x107 c.f.u. per well; Table 4
), and the highest affinity to mucus was obtained with Lb. rhamosus GG (1.2x106 c.f.u. per well). This indicates that Staph. aureus can be outcompeted by probiotics which have higher affinity to the mucus. This is likely to explain why Lb. rhamnosus, Lc. lactis and P. freudenreichii displaced Staph. aureus from mucus. Similarly under in vivo conditions, Staph. aureus would probably be washed out more easily from the intestinal mucus surface than for example Lb. rhamnosus GG. However, in competition assays, LAB showing higher affinity than Staph. aureus to mucus were not able to reduce its adhesion. This may have been due to the amounts of bacteria used: in displacement the adherent pathogens were covered with LAB and outnumbered whereas in competition the amounts of bacteria were similar. In exclusion assays there was no effect of LAB on adhesion of Staph. aureus, indicating that the bacteria do not use same adhesion receptors.
When viability of adherent Staph. aureus was measured in the presence of adherent LAB, the LAB had an effect only when nutrients were available. Adherent Lb. reuteri, Lc. lactis and P. freudenreichii significantly reduced the viability of Staph. aureus by 2736 % within 2 h. The reduction of viability was not due to competition for nutrients (which were present in excess) but rather to the in situ production of organic acids and hydrogen peroxide, and in the case of Lb. reuteri possibly reuterin (Arques et al., 2004
; Vesterlund et al., 2004
). Uehara et al. (2001)
showed that colonization of meticillin-resistant Staph. aureus (MRSA) in the oral cavities of newborns was inhibited by the viridans group of streptococci, and that this was probably due to the production of hydrogen peroxide by these streptococci. However, it is unclear whether LAB can produce antimicrobial substances against Staph. aureus in vivo. It is also possible that the hydrogen peroxide produced is degraded by the metabolism of other bacteria (Ryan & Kleinberg, 1995
).
The emergence of antibiotic resistance among Staph. aureus strains and possibly increased intestinal colonization of these bacteria require alternative methods for prevention and treatment of staphylococcal diseases. Our results show that Staph. aureus adheres to human colonic mucus and that certain LAB could have antiadhesive and antimicrobial effects against this bacterium. However, it remains for further studies to show that other virulent Staph. aureus strains can adhere to colonic mucus in vitro and in vivo, and to show that LAB have antiadhesive and antimicrobial effects against Staph. aureus also in vivo.
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
|---|
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Arques, J. L., Fernandez, J., Gaya, P., Nunez, M., Rodriguez, E. & Medina, M. (2004). Antimicrobial activity of reuterin in combination with nisin against food-borne pathogens. Int J Food Microbiol 95, 225229.[CrossRef][Medline]
Beard, S. J., Salisbury, V., Lewis, R. J., Sharpe, J. A. & MacGowan, A. P. (2002). Expression of lux genes in a clinical isolate of Streptococcus pneumoniae: using bioluminescence to monitor gemifloxacin activity. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 46, 538542.
Bjorksten, B., Sepp, E., Julge, K., Voor, T. & Mikelsaar, M. (2001). Allergy development and the intestinal microflora during the first year of life. J Allergy Clin Immunol 108, 516520.[CrossRef][Medline]
Boyce, J. M. & Havill, N. L. (2005). Nosocomial antibiotic-associated diarrhea associated with enterotoxin-producing strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Am J Gastroenterol 100, 18281834.[CrossRef][Medline]
Cespedes, C., Said-Salim, B., Miller, M., Lo, S. H., Kreiswirth, B. N., Gordon, R. J., Vavagiakis, P., Klein, R. S. & Lowy, F. D. (2005). The clonality of Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage. J Infect Dis 191, 444452.[CrossRef][Medline]
Collins, M. D. & Gibson, G. R. (1999). Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics: approaches for modulating the microbial ecology of the gut. Am J Clin Nutr 69, 1052S1057S.
Donskey, C. J. (2004). The role of the intestinal tract as a reservoir and source for transmission of nosocomial pathogens. Clin Infect Dis 39, 219226.[CrossRef][Medline]
Dupeyron, C., Campillo, S. B., Mangeney, N., Richardet, J. P. & Leluan, G. (2001). Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus and of gram-negative bacilli resistant to third-generation cephalosporins in cirrhotic patients: a prospective assessment of hospital-acquired infections. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 22, 427432.[Medline]
Gorbach, S. L., Chang, T. W. & Goldin, B. (1987). Successful treatment of relapsing Clostridium difficile colitis with Lactobacillus GG. Lancet 2, 1519.[Medline]
Gries, D. M., Pultz, N. J. & Donskey, C. J. (2005). Growth in cecal mucus facilitates colonization of the mouse intestinal tract by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. J Infect Dis 192, 16211627.[CrossRef][Medline]
Kielian, T., Cheung, A. & Hickey, W. F. (2001). Diminished virulence of an alpha-toxin mutant of Staphylococcus aureus in experimental brain abscesses. Infect Immun 69, 69026911.
Kreiswirth, B. N., Lofdahl, S., Betley, M. J., O'Reilly, M., Schlievert, P. M., Bergdoll, M. S. & Novick, R. P. (1983). The toxic shock syndrome exotoxin structural gene is not detectably transmitted by a prophage. Nature 305, 709712.[CrossRef][Medline]
Lee, Y. K., Lim, C. Y., Teng, W. L., Ouwehand, A. C., Tuomola, E. M. & Salminen, S. (2000). Quantitative approach in the study of adhesion of lactic acid bacteria to intestinal cells and their competition with enterobacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 66, 36923697.
Lesuffleur, T., Barbat, A., Dussaulx, E. & Zweibaum, A. (1990). Growth adaptation to methotrexate of HT-29 human colon carcinoma cells is associated with their ability to differentiate into columnar absorptive and mucus-secreting cells. Cancer Res 50, 63346343.
Lesuffleur, T., Porchet, N., Aubert, J. P., Swallow, D., Gum, J. R., Kim, Y. S., Real, F. X. & Zweibaum, A. (1993). Differential expression of the human mucin genes MUC1 to MUC5 in relation to growth and differentiation of different mucus-secreting HT-29 cell subpopulations. J Cell Sci 106, 771783.[Abstract]
Lindberg, E., Nowrouzian, F., Adlerberth, I. & Wold, A. E. (2000). Long-time persistence of superantigen-producing Staphylococcus aureus strains in the intestinal microflora of healthy infants. Pediatr Res 48, 741747.[Medline]
Lindberg, E., Adlerberth, I., Hesselmar, B., Saalman, R., Strannegard, I. L., Aberg, N. & Wold, A. E. (2004). High rate of transfer of Staphylococcus aureus from parental skin to infant gut flora. J Clin Microbiol 42, 530534.
Lowy, F. D. (1998). Staphylococcus aureus infections. N Engl J Med 339, 520532.
Lu, J., Wang, A., Ansari, S., Hershberg, R. M. & McKay, D. M. (2003). Colonic bacterial superantigens evoke an inflammatory response and exaggerate disease in mice recovering from colitis. Gastroenterology 125, 17851795.
Moncada, D. M., Kammanadiminti, S. J. & Chadee, K. (2003). Mucin and Toll-like receptors in host defense against intestinal parasites. Trends Parasitol 19, 305311.[CrossRef][Medline]
Ouwehand, A. C., Salminen, S., Tolkko, S., Roberts, P., Ovaska, J. & Salminen, E. (2002). Resected human colonic tissue: new model for characterizing adhesion of lactic acid bacteria. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol 9, 184186.[Medline]
Ouwehand, A. C., Salminen, S., Roberts, P. J., Ovaska, J. & Salminen, E. (2003). Disease-dependent adhesion of lactic acid bacteria to the human intestinal mucosa. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol 10, 643646.[Medline]
Ray, A. J., Pultz, N. J., Bhalla, A., Aron, D. C. & Donskey, C. J. (2003). Coexistence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci and Staphylococcus aureus in the intestinal tracts of hospitalized patients. Clin Infect Dis 37, 875881.[CrossRef][Medline]
Rimland, D. & Roberson, B. (1986). Gastrointestinal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. J Clin Microbiol 24, 137138.
Rocchetta, H. L., Boylan, C. J., Foley, J. W. & 7 other authors (2001). Validation of a noninvasive, real-time imaging technology using bioluminescent Escherichia coli in the neutropenic mouse thigh model of infection. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 45, 129137.
Ryan, C. S. & Kleinberg, I. (1995). Bacteria in human mouths involved in the production and utilization of hydrogen peroxide. Arch Oral Biol 40, 753763.[CrossRef][Medline]
Saavedra, J. M., Bauman, N. A., Oung, I., Perman, J. A. & Yolken, R. H. (1994). Feeding of Bifidobacterium bifidum and Streptococcus thermophilus to infants in hospital for prevention of diarrhoea and shedding of rotavirus. Lancet 344, 10461049.[CrossRef][Medline]
Salyers, A. A., Gupta, A. & Wang, Y. (2004). Human intestinal bacteria as reservoirs for antibiotic resistance genes. Trends Microbiol 12, 412416.[CrossRef][Medline]
Shuter, J., Hatcher, V. B. & Lowy, F. D. (1996). Staphylococcus aureus binding to human nasal mucin. Infect Immun 64, 310318.[Abstract]
Squier, C., Rihs, J. D., Risa, K. J., Sagnimeni, A., Wagener, M. M., Stout, J., Muder, R. R. & Singh, N. (2002). Staphylococcus aureus rectal carriage and its association with infections in patients in a surgical intensive care unit and a liver transplant unit. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 23, 495501.[CrossRef][Medline]
Talarico, T. L., Casas, I. A., Chung, T. C. & Dobrogosz, W. J. (1988). Production and isolation of reuterin, a growth inhibitor produced by Lactobacillus reuteri. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 32, 18541858.
Uehara, Y., Kikuchi, K., Nakamura, T., Nakama, H., Agematsu, K., Kawakami, Y., Maruchi, N. & Totsuka, K. (2001). Inhibition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization of oral cavities in newborns by viridans group streptococci. Clin Infect Dis 32, 13991407.[CrossRef][Medline]
Uehara, Y., Kikuchi, K., Nakamura, T., Nakama, H., Agematsu, K., Kawakami, Y., Maruchi, N. & Totsuka, K. (2001). H2O2 produced by viridans group streptococci may contribute to inhibition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization of oral cavities in newborns. Clin Infect Dis 32, 14081413.[CrossRef][Medline]
Unge, A., Tombolini, R., Molbak, L. & Jansson, J. K. (1999). Simultaneous monitoring of cell number and metabolic activity of specific bacterial populations with a dual gfp-luxAB marker system. Appl Environ Microbiol 65, 813821.
Vanderhoof, J. A., Whitney, D. B., Antonson, D. L., Hanner, T. L., Lupo, J. V. & Young, R. J. (1999). Lactobacillus GG in the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in children. J Pediatr 135, 564568.[CrossRef][Medline]
van der Waaij, D., Berghuis-de Vries, J. M. & Lekkerkerk, L.-v. (1971). Colonization resistance of the digestive tract in conventional and antibiotic-treated mice. J Hyg 69, 405411.
Vesterlund, S., Paltta, J., Laukova, A., Karp, M. & Ouwehand, A. C. (2004). Rapid screening method for the detection of antimicrobial substances. J Microbiol Methods 57, 2331.[CrossRef][Medline]
Vesterlund, S., Paltta, J., Karp, M. & Ouwehand, A. C. (2005). Measurement of bacterial adhesion in vitro evaluation of different methods. J Microbiol Methods 60, 225233.[Medline]
WHO (2001). Health and nutritional properties of probiotics in food including powder milk with live lactic acid bacteria. Report of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Evaluation of Health and Nutritional Properties of Probiotics in Food Including Powder Milk with Live Lactic Acid Bacteria. Córdoba, Argentina: World Health Organization.
Received 14 September 2005;
revised 3 January 2006;
accepted 10 January 2006.
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
L. Nazef, Y. Belguesmia, A. Tani, H. Prevost, and D. Drider Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria from Poultry Feces: Evidence on Anti-Campylobacter and Anti-Listeria Activities Poult. Sci., February 1, 2008; 87(2): 329 - 334. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. Nuding, K. Fellermann, J. Wehkamp, and E. F Stange Reduced mucosal antimicrobial activity in Crohn's disease of the colon Gut, September 1, 2007; 56(9): 1240 - 1247. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| INT J SYST EVOL MICROBIOL | MICROBIOLOGY | J GEN VIROL |
| J MED MICROBIOL | ALL SGM JOURNALS | |