Evaluation of Adhesive Characteristics of and Isolated from Weaned Piglets.

and strains, previously isolated from weaned piglets, were considered for the evaluation of their adhesive characteristics. Lactobacilli were treated with LiCl in order to remove the surface protein layer, and probiotic activity was compared with those of untreated strains. The autoaggregation, co-aggregation to F18+, and adhesive abilities of LiCl-treated and were significantly inhibited ( < 0.05) compared with the respective untreated strain. The hydrophobic and basic phenotypes were observed due to the strong affinity to chloroform and low adherence to ethyl acetate. In particular, showed higher hydrophobicity compared to , which may reflect their different colonizing ability. After treatment with LiCl to remove surface proteins, the adherence capabilities of and on IPEC-J2 cells decreased significantly ( < 0.001) and adhered more frequently. Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that both and had several bands ranging from 20 to 100 kDa. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis showed an acidic profile of the surface-layer polypeptides for both bacterial strains, and more studies are needed to characterize their profile and functions. The results confirm the pivotal role of surface proteins in the probiotic potential of and .