Study on mucin degradation activity of two strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus in vitro

In this study,the ability to degrade mucin of two strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus(KLDS1.0901 and KLDS1.0902) screened from the human intestine and identified by 16 S r DNA in vitro was evaluated. Mucinolytic activity was examined using the following three tests:growth in liquid medium,SDS-PAGE analysis of degraded mucin residues,and degradation assay in Petri dish. The test strains fell to grow in the liquid medium containing mucin,while fecal sample grew well. In the SDS-PAGE analyses of mucin residues and observation of mucinolytic zone in agar plate,the two test strains also showed no mucin degradation activity,while fecal sample yielded positive results. The results demonstrated that strains tested were unable to degrade gastrointestinal mucin in vitro.