Objective: Adhering to the intestinal epithelial cells is one of the beneficial functions exerting by probiotics. We tested and verified the expression of adhesion-related genes in vivo and in vitro to understand the influence from Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM on host cells.
Method: We selected the adhesion-related genes through GO (gene ontology) category from the Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array analysis. These genes were verified by in vitro Caco-2 cells culture model and in vivo mouse model using Real-time PCR method.
Results: After L. acidophilus NCFM adhering to Caco-2, we found that 12 adhesion-related genes were up-regulated. The up-regulation was confirmed in vivo and in vitro by Real-time PCR assay. Among them, the up-regulated expression of chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2) gene was the most distinguished one.
Conclusion: Our research showed that L. acidophilus NCFM, adhering to Caco-2 cells, could cause the differential expression of the host adhesion-related genes. Results of this study seemed to provide some useful data for further revealing its effect on intestinal epithelial cells.