Screening of adhesive lactobacilli with antagonistic activity against Campylobacter jejuni

• Four adhesive Lactobacillus strains antagonize against Campylobacter jejuni in vitro.
• The antagonistic activities against C. jejuni of all strains are pH sensitive.
• All strains inhibit the adhesion and invasion of C. jejuni to HT-29 efficiently.
• All strains can be used as potential probiotics for their acid and bile tolerance.

In the present study, 78 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains were screened for the antagonistic activity against Campylobacter jejuni and 15 LAB strains with high bactericidal capacity were selected for further study through the analysis of the inhibition zone of LAB spent culture supernatant on the growth of C. jejuni. Among these strains, four isolates, Lactobacillus plantarum N8, N9, ZL5 and Lactobacillus casei ZL4 exhibited high adhesion ability to HT-29 cells. All the cell free supernatant (CFS) of these four strains contained high concentration of organic acid and their inhibition effects against C. jejuni were pH sensitive. Furthermore, these four strains could strongly antagonize the adhesion and invasion of C. jejuni to HT-29 cells and showed good tolerance to artificial gastric and small intestinal juices. This study suggests that Lactobacillus strains N8, N9, ZL4 and ZL5 could be used as potential probiotics in food applications against C. jejuni infection.