As reactor effluents contain a dense and active microbiota, bacterial

fermentation and pH reduction can occur during intestinal cell incubation which can negatively affect cell viability thus epithelial integrity [23]. Salmonella invasion is influenced by environmental factors such as pH or SCFA concentrations. Upon infection Salmonella invasion was generally higher in distal reactors (pH 6.7) compared to proximal (pH 5.7) and transverse (pH 6.2) reactors and inversely related to SCFA concentrations. These results are consistent with findings of Durant et al. [32], demonstrating that Salmonella entry into HEp-2 cells was higher at pH 7 compared to pH 6 in the presence of 80 mM Veliparib ic50 acetate, 40 mM Ro 61-8048 propionate and 20 mM butyrate. A lower percentage of cell-association and invasion was observed as the concentration of each SCFA increased at pH 6 but not at pH 7 [32]. Salmonella invasion into intestinal cells is known to be associated with a rapid disruption of epithelial integrity caused by structural modifications of intercellular junctions that can be assessed by TER measurements [8, 33, 34]. In this study, we effectively demonstrated that effluents obtained from three-stage in vitro colonic fermentation models of Salmonella infection and applied directly on confluent and fully differentiated HT29-MTX cells induces a large and significant decrease of TER after 1 h of incubation, compared to non-infected effluents (Figure

3). Visualization of tight junctions by phalloidin staining revealed that intracellular junctions of HT29-MTX cells were not affected by the gut microbiota produced during initial model stabilization (Stab, Figure 4A) but were check details highly disrupted in the presence of Salmonella (Sal, Figure 4B). This is in accordance PRKD3 with results published by Jepson et al. [35] where incubation of MDCK monolayers with S. typhimurium SL1344 for 60 min was accompanied by a disruption of intracellular junctions. Addition of E. coli L1000 enhanced Salmonella growth in all reactors although the efficiency of Salmonella in invading HT29-MTX cells significantly decreased in distal reactor

(R3) samples. After the addition of B. thermophilum RBL67, the invasion efficiency of Salmonella decreased most in proximal reactors (R1), despite higher Salmonella counts compared to previous Ecol II periods. These results may reflect the influence of environmental requirements for optimal growth of the tested probiotics. B. thermophilum RBL67 is acid tolerant and a competitive bacteriocinogenic bacteria [15, 18], a trait likely advantageous for competing with other members of the bacterial ecosystem present in proximal colon reactors at pH 5.7. Indeed, B. thermophilum RBL67 best colonized and reduced Salmonella invasion into HT29-MTX cells at pH 5.7 with proximal reactor samples, while E. coli L1000 was more competitive at pH 6.6 in distal colon reactors. The presence of E.