The exact mechanism of the anti-inflammatory activity of S. boulardii extract is not clear. However, in light of these results, it is tempting to speculate that the leading mechanism involves the modulation of neutrophils’ response. IL-8 influenced only chemotaxis and the activation of neutrophils, while the spectrum of IL-1β activity is wide and includes the activation of T helper, NK cells

and macrophages, maturation and proliferation of B cells. Slight stimulation of IL-1β and IL-8 expression in Caco-2 cells by S. boulardii extract may not indicate an inflammatory reaction, but rather the stimulation of the host defense. Induction of IL-8 expression by nonpathogenic microorganisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae ICG-001 chemical structure (Saegusa et al., 2004, 2007) or Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (Lammers et al., 2002) was shown previously, and is believed to be beneficial for the normal state of the host immune system preparing for pathogen infection. Further studies are needed to fully understand the mechanism of S. boulardii action against C. albicans hyphae formation and adhesion to intestinal cell lines. We are now determining the chemical structure of active molecule/s secreted by S. boulardii, which will Dasatinib nmr allow further elucidation of the mechanism of its biological activity. This work was partly supported

by a grant from Biocodex, France. “
“Normally, Lactobacillus brevis has two glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) genes; gadA and gadB. Using PCR, we cloned the gadA gene from L. brevis strain NCL912, a high yield strain for the production of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). However, despite using 61 different primer pairs, including degenerate primers

from conserved regions, we were unable to use PCR to clone gadB from the NCL912 strain. Furthermore, we could not clone it by genomic walking over 3000 bp downstream of the aldo-keto reductase gene, a single-copy gene that is located 1003 bp upstream of gadB in L. brevis ATCC367. Altogether, the data suggest that L. brevis NCL912 does not contain a gadB gene. By genomic walking, we cloned regions upstream and downstream of the gadA gene to obtain a 4615 bp DNA fragment that included the complete gadA locus. The locus contained the GAD gene (gadA) and the glutamate:GABA antiporter gene (gadC), which appear to be Dichloromethane dehalogenase transcribed in an operon (gadCA), and a transcriptional regulator (gadR) of gadCA. During whole fed-batch fermentation, the expression of gadR, gadC and gadA was synchronized and correlated well with GABA production. The gadA locus we cloned from NCL912 has reduced homology compared with gadA loci of other L. brevis strains, and these differences might explain the ability of NCL912 to produce higher levels of GABA in culture. “
“We studied the effect of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) stress on the anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough. In a lactate/sulfate medium, growth was affected from 0.1 mM H2O2 and totally inhibited at 0.7 mM.