Although there was no significant difference (r= 0.98) between cholesterol removal by resting and dead cells, most strains exhibited higher cholesterol removal when resting cells were suspended

in phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) compared to heat-killed cells (Fig. 1). Moreover, the amount of cholesterol removed by the cells during growth was significantly higher compared to the cholesterol removed by heat-killed and resting cells (P < 0.01). In this Selleckchem FK506 study, for all three cell types (growing, resting, and heat-killed cells), the highest cholesterol removal was by the B3 strain (23%, 14% and 10%, respectively). All of the strains produced more EPS in the presence of cholesterol than the strains grown without cholesterol during the 19-hr incubation period (Fig. 2). In other words, cholesterol significantly

stimulated the EPS production and the Pearson correlation coefficient was statistically significant (P < 0.01). It is remarkable that at the end of the 19- and 48-hr incubation periods, in the media containing 1 mg/ml oxgall, the B3 strain, which achieved maximum cholesterol removal to the values of 34% and 40%, respectively, had the highest EPS production (211 mg/l) capacity. Furthermore, the ATCC 11842 strain, which had the second highest EPS production capacity (200 mg/l), also had the second highest cholesterol removal rate after the B3 strain. For the immobilization study, among the five strains tested, the B3 strain, which had CP690550 the highest EPS production and cholesterol removal capacity, was selected. Observable differences were found in cholesterol removal by immobilized and free B3 cells (Table 3). For both of the incubation periods (19 hr and 48 hr), immobilized cultures exhibited higher cholesterol removal ability compared to the free

cells. The highest cholesterol removal (50%) was achieved by the immobilized B3 strain at the end of Nintedanib (BIBF 1120) the 48-hr incubation period. The viable cell counts in free and immobilized cultures at the end of the 19- and 48-hr incubation periods are shown in Table 4. After 19-hr incubation, in the PBS buffer solution containing 100 μg/ml cholesterol plus 3 mg/ml oxgall, the immobilized B3 culture contained 6.5 ± 0.2 × 103 cfu/ml, which represented 72% of surviving bacteria. In contrast, after 48-hr incubation, it contained 1.8 ± 0.2 × 102 cfu/ml, which represented a 51% survival rate. These results are higher than those observed with free cells. Coronary heart disease is one of the major causes of death and disability in many countries (21). Elevated levels of serum cholesterol is also a risk factor for the development of atherosclerotic vascular disease (22). Drug therapy for hypercholesterolemia includes fibrates, statins and bile acid sequestrants; however the undesirable side-effects of these compounds have caused concerns about their therapeutic use.