Effect of sodium-alginate and laminaran on Salmonella Typhimurium infection in human enterocyte-like HT-29-Luc cells and BALB/c mice

Brown algal polysaccharides such as alginate, polymers of uronic acids, and laminaran, beta-1,3 and 1,6-glucan, can be fermented by human intestinal microbiota. To evaluate the effects of these polysaccharides on infections caused by food poisoning pathogens, we investigated the adhesion and invasion of pathogens (Salmonella Typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes and Vibrio parahaemolyticus) in human enterocyte-like HT-29-Luc cells and in infections caused in BALB/c mice. Both sodium Na-alginate and laminaran (0.1% each) inhibited the adhesion of the pathogens to HT-29-Luc cells by approximately 70–90%. The invasion of S. Typhimurium was also inhibited by approximately 70 and 80% by Na-alginate and laminaran, respectively. We observed that incubation with Na-alginate for 18 h increased the transepithelial electrical resistance of HT-29-Luc monolayer cells. Four days after inoculation with 7 log CFU/mouse of S. Typhimurium, the faecal pathogen count in mice that were not fed polysaccharides (control mice) was about 6.5 log CFU/g while the count in mice that were fed Na-alginate had decreased to 5.0 log CFU/g. The liver pathogen count, which was 4.1 log CFU/g in the control mice, was also decreased in mice that were fed Na-alginate. In contrast, the mice that were fed laminaran exhibited a more severe infection than that exhibited by control mice.