Fig. 1
In vitro GI survival data of LAB strains. Each lyophilized strain (2 g, 109 CFU/gr) was rehydrated in 100 ml of demineralized water for 15 min at room temperature (baseline). The rest of the experiment was performed at 37 °C. The stomach was simulated by adding 1 ml of porcine pepsine solution and decreasing the pH in four steps of 15 min to 4.8, 4.5, 3.5 and 2.5. After 75 min (stomach), the entry into the proximal duodenum was mimicked by increasing the pH to 6.5 by adding 0.1 N NaOH and, after 90 min, 10 ml of porcine bile extract solution and 2 ml of porcine pancreatin solution were added. After 3 h (duodenum), bile salts were deactivated by adding 11.5 mM of calcium chloride. The pH was maintained at 6.5 until 6 h (ileum) which was the end of the experiment. The experiments have been performed in triplicate