Spatial Localization and Binding of the Probiotic Lactobacillus farciminis to the Rat Intestinal Mucosa: Influence of Chronic Stress

PLoS One. 2015 Sep 14;10(9):e0136048. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136048. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The present study aimed at detecting the exogenously applied probiotic Lactobacillus farciminis in rats, after exposure to IBS-like chronic stress, based on 4-day Water Avoidance Stress (WAS). The presence of L. farciminis in both ileal and colonic mucosal tissues was demonstrated by FISH and qPCR, with ileum as the preferential niche, as for the SFB population. A different spatial distribution of the probiotic was observed: in the ileum, bacteria were organized in micro-colonies more or less close to the epithelium whereas, in the colon, they were mainly visualized far away from the epithelium. When rats were submitted to WAS, the L. farciminis population substantially decreased in both intestinal regions, due to a stress-induced increase in colonic motility and defecation, rather than a modification of bacterial binding to the intestinal mucin Muc2.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Colon / microbiology
  • Colon / ultrastructure
  • Ileum / microbiology
  • Ileum / ultrastructure
  • Intestinal Mucosa / microbiology*
  • Intestinal Mucosa / ultrastructure
  • Lactobacillus / pathogenicity*
  • Male
  • Mucin-2 / metabolism
  • Protein Binding
  • Rats
  • Rats, Wistar
  • Stress, Psychological / microbiology*
  • Stress, Psychological / pathology

Substances

  • Muc2 protein, rat
  • Mucin-2

Grants and funding

This work was supported by INRA (CEPIA Division; http://www.inra.fr) and CNRS (INSIS Institute; www.cnrs.fr) through the doctoral grant of Stéphanie Da Silva (2010-2013). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The funder Lallemand SA provided support in the form of salary for author (Afifa Ait-Belgnaoui), but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. No additional external funding was received for this study.