Acid stress suggests different determinants for polystyrene and HeLa cell adhesion in Lactobacillus casei

Adhesion has been regarded as one of the basic features of probiotics. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of acid stress on the functional properties, such as hydrophobicity, adhesion to HeLa cells, and composition of membrane fatty acids, of Lactobacillus probiotics strains. Two strains of Lactobacillus casei were used. Adhesion on polystyrene, hydrophobicity, epithelial cells adhesion, and fatty acids analysis were evaluated. Our results showed that the membrane properties such as hydrophobicity and fatty acid composition of stressed strains were significantly changed with different pH values. However, we found that acid stress caused a change in the proportions of unsaturated and saturated fatty acid. The ratio of saturated fatty acid to unsaturated fatty acids observed in acid-stressed Lactobacillus casei cells was significantly higher than the ration in control cells. In addition, we observed a significant decrease in the adhesion ability of these strains to HeLa cells and to a polystyrene surface at low pH. The present finding could first add new insight about the acid stress adaptation and, thus, enable new strategies to be developed aimed at improving the industrial performance of this species under acid stress. Second, no relationship was observed between changes in membrane composition and fluidity induced by acid treatment and adhesion to biotic and abiotic surfaces. In fact, the decrease of cell surface hydrophobicity and the adhesion ability to abiotic surface and the increase of the capacity of adhesion to biotic surface demonstrate that adhesive characteristics will have little relevance in probiotic strain-screening procedures.