Such models allow independent testing of different experimental treatments on both gut microbiota

Momelotinib in vivo composition and metabolic activity within a single experimental period, using the same microbiota under controlled environmental conditions, which are designed to simulate the proximal, transverse and distal colon of healthy and infected subjects [9–14]. More recently, a three-stage in vitro colonic fermentation model of Salmonella infection in child colon was used to assess the effects of probiotic and prebiotic treatments on gut microbial behavior and on S. Typhimurium infection [15]. The activity of microcin B17-producing Escherichia coli L1000 wt [16] and bacteriocinogenic Bifidobacterium thermophilum RBL67, both exhibiting strong anti-Salmonella activity in simple in vitro tests [17, 18], as well as the microcin B17-negative mutant strain MccB17-, were tested in two three-stage models inoculated with the same fecal inoculum. When added to the colonic model, E. coli L1000 unexpectedly stimulated Salmonella growth in all reactors independently of the microcin B17-phenotype, partly due to a low colonization of the strain in the complex intestinal environment. In contrast, thermophilicin RBL67-producing Bifidobacterium thermophilum RBL67 revealed

high competitiveness and colonized at high levels but did not reduce Salmonella counts, most likely a function of the presence of a very high Salmonella population in the in vitro model prior to probiotic addition. PARP inhibitor Most data available on the mechanistic effects of probiotics on the host are derived from in vitro studies with

intestinal cells [19]. Such models have also been used to investigate bacterial interactions with the intestinal epithelium during enteric infection [20]. Salmonella these pathogenesis, for example, has been studied in pure selleck screening library cultures using epithelial Caco-2 and HT-29 cell models [21, 22], both of which lack the ability to produce mucus. The mucus-secreting HT29-MTX cell line however, represents more accurate physiological conditions of the gastrointestinal tract for investigating pathogenic behavior during infection, as the presence of mucus has been shown to enhance pathogenicity of pathogens such as Campylobacter jejuni [23]. All interaction studies of pathogens and probiotics with intestinal cells have been performed with simple systems of either pure or mixed cultures. Microbe cell interactions are however different when tested in the presence of a complex gut microbiota [24, 25]. Gut metabolites such as SCFAs affect epithelial cell metabolism, turnover and apoptosis [26] but may also enhance virulence (e.g. S. Typhimurium), by inducing an acid tolerance response or increasing expression of porins [27]. To our knowledge, the effects of an infected gut microbiota, including its metabolites and probiotic treatment on intestinal cells has not been previously reported.