Abstract
It is reported that "Probiotics" such as genus Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium have various physiological effects on a host. For those various actions to take place, the adhesion of probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to the human intestinal tract is very important. It is thought that probiotic LAB colonizes the intestinal tract by adhering to mucin, extracellular matrix, and lectin like protein that exist in the human intestinal tract, then propagates. S-layer, lectin-like, and other proteins, and the lipoteichoic acids exist on the bacterial cell surface and work as "adhesin". Especially, the adhesion mediated by lectin-like proteins is very specific and interesting. The adhesion test is generally performed by measuring optical absorbance or observation with a microscope using the Caco-2 cell line as a human intestinal tract model. We developed a new evaluation system with the "BIACORE" biosensor which utilizes the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and discovered some LAB strains recognizing the human blood type antigen. We think the possibility of discovering a new adhesin with the new system is very high, and it will be very useful for probiotic research in the future.
