Adherence and viability of intestinal bacteria to differentiated Caco-2 cells quantified by flow cytometry

Recent developments in host-microbe research give rise to a growing demand for rapid and accurate methods to quantify bacterial adhesion to epithelial cells. Here, we describe a new flow cytometric method to determine the amount and viability of gut bacteria, adhered to a monolayer of differentiated cells. The latter is a more relevant epithelium model than the suspended eukaryotic cells currently used in flow cytometric protocols. During the development of the method, we monitored the adhesion potential of six bacterial species and an intestinal microbial community to Caco-2 cells. The combination of SYBR Green I/propidium iodide was more efficient than carboxyfluorescein diacetate to stain the bacterial cells. In addition, a better separation between the Caco-2 background signal and viable and dead bacteria was obtained. A precise amount of Triton X-100 was used to detach adhered bacteria from Caco-2 cells and cell debris. Yet, a limited decrease in viability was observed for the intestinal microbial community treated with Triton X-100. The flow cytometric lower detection limit for pure bacterial cultures was 3.0-4.0log/mL, whereas a 5.0-5.5log/mL detection limit was obtained in the presence of Caco-2 cell background. The latter was sufficient to quantify adhered bacteria. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of a flow cytometric protocol that quantifies adhesion of both pure and mixed gut microbial cultures to a differentiated monolayer of Caco-2 cells and that allows to distinguish between viable and dead adhered bacteria.