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. 2012 Jan 23;109(6):2108–2113. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1115621109

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

B. breve surface EPS protects against acid and bile, facilitates in vivo persistence, and modulates cytokine expression from stimulated splenocytes. (A) Growth curve of UCC2003 (EPS+), UCC2003-EPSdel (EPS−), and UCC2003::Bbr_0430 (EPS−) in de Man-Rogosa-Sharpe (MRS) pH5.0 or in MRS supplemented with 0.3% bile over 24 h at 37 °C. Data represent mean ± SD (B) BALB/c mice were treated orally with ∼1 × 109 UCC2003, UCC2003-EPSdel, or UCC2003::Bbr_0430 on 3 consecutive days and bacterial numbers (CFU) in feces determined (data represent log10 CFU/g feces ± SD). (C) Organs were also removed on day 31 to determine CFU; columns show log10 CFU/organ (± SD). (D) Spleens were harvested from naïve BALB/c mice and stimulated with wild-type (EPS+), deletion, and insertion mutants (EPS−) B. breve strains at 1:1 ratio for ∼20 h. Cells were also stimulated with ConA (dotted line). Columns represent the mean ± SD stimulation indices of splenocytes from 10 mice from two independent experiments. Significance was determined relative to mice treated with UCC2003 (EPS+) at the same time point using the Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn's multiple comparison test; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.