TABLE 2.

Inhibition of adhesion of E. coli K88ac and K88MB to the intestinal mucus receptor of piglets by E. faecium 18C23

Treatment	Adhesion (%)a of:
	E. coli K88ac		E. coli K88MB
	Incubation for 24 h	Incubation for 72 h	Incubation for 24 h	Incubation for 72 h
Control (PBS; pH 7.0)	100	100	100	100
Citrate buffer (pH 4.0)	107 ± 2.5	107 ± 2.5	102 ± 1.4	102 ± 1.6
Fresh KF broth (pH 4.0)	101 ± 3.6	102 ± 2.9	99.1 ± 0.9	103 ± 3.4
E. faecium 18C23 culture (pH 4.0)	6.5 ± 0.75	4.0 ± 1.0	3.0 ± 0.2	3.1 ± 0.3
Neutralized mixture (pH 7.0)	26.0 ± 2.0*	25.0 ± 2.6*	12.5 ± 2.1*	20.2 ± 2.2*
Supernatant only (pH 4.0)b	21.0 ± 3.0	19.0 ± 4.0	18.0 ± 2.8	14.0 ± 2.1
Neutralized supernatant (pH 7.0)	39.5 ± 4.7*	34.5 ± 3.9*	27.0 ± 3.1*	36.0 ± 2.9*
Pellet only (pH 7.0)c	26.0 ± 8.0	27.3 ± 6.2	3.0 ± 0.2	3.0 ± 0.19
Recombinant of supernatant and pellet (pH 4.0)d	7.5 ± 0.25	8.5 ± 0.51	3.1 ± 0.25	2.9 ± 0.11

^aAdhesion is expressed as the percentage of E. coli K88 binding to mucus relative to the control. Values are expressed as the mean ± standard error of three experiments, each performed in triplicate. *, significantly different from their nonneutralized counterparts (P < 0.05). 

^bSupernatant was prepared by filtration through a 0.22-μm-pore-size filter after the E. faecium 18C23 culture was centrifuged at 650 × g. 

^cThe bacterial cells were washed three times and suspended in PBS buffer (pH 7.0). 

^dThe washed bacterial cells were resuspended in the spent culture.