Figure 5

Inhibition of adhesion of C.albicans to vaginal epithelial cells. (a) Treatment of vaginal epithelial cells with 1×10⁷ L. crispatus. C. albicans to Vk2/E6E7 cells was assessed by microscopy (×100) after Gram’s stain by counting the number of micro-organisms attached to 30 consecutive cells. The results of the three conditions (i.e. exclusion, competition and displacement) were expressed as the average number of C. albicans per Vk2/E6E7 cells and compared with adhesion without lactobacilli (control value). The control values were taken as 100% of adhesion and the inhibition of C. albicans adherence was calculated by subtracting each adhesion percentage from their corresponding control value. (b) Treatment of vaginal epithelial cells with 1.0 mg/mL EPS. C. albicans to Vk2/E6E7 cells was assessed by microscopy (×100) after Gram’s stain by counting the number of micro-organisms attached to 30 consecutive cells. The results of the three conditions (i.e. exclusion, competition and displacement) were expressed as the average number of C. albicans per Vk2/E6E7 cells and compared with adhesion without EPS (control value). The control values were taken as 100% of adhesion and the inhibition of C. albicans adherence was calculated by substracting each adhesion percentage from their corresponding control value. The data are expressed as the mean ± SD percentage of adherence in three independent experiments. The asterisks indicate a statistically significant difference between C. albicans grown in the presence of viable or heat-killed L. crispatus versus C. albicans alone. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.