Probiotic metabolites from Bacillus coagulans GanedenBC30TM support maturation of antigen-presenting cells in vitro

Figure 1 CD14 expression on mononuclear phagocytes. Mononuclear phagocytes present in 3-d peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures exposed to either the Ganeden Bacillus coagulans 30 (GBC30) metabolites (MET), cell wall-enriched (CW), or MET fractions, were identified using electronic gating of the flow cytometry data by gating on forward scatter/side scatter followed by gating for CD14 positivity. A comparison was made between cells that were untreated (UT), exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or to the different GBC30 fractions. A: Comparison of CD14 mean fluorescence intensity showed a dose-dependent increase in CD14 expression in cells treated with crude MET. A milder increase was seen for cells treated with crude CW. The baseline indicates CD14 expression on untreated cells; B: The increase in CD14 expression was primarily caused by high molecular weight compounds present in MET; C: The percent of CD14^bright cells in the mononuclear phagocyte population was decreased by all fractions of MET; D: The percent of CD14^dim cells in the mononuclear phagocyte population was increased by treatment of cells with all MET fractions. Bar graphs show data from 1:200 dilutions of each MET fraction and lipopolysaccharide (1 μg/mL). ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01 and ^cP < 0.001. For each data point, the mean + SD are shown for each duplicate data set. Graphs show data representative of 1 out of 3 experiments. MFI: Mean fluorescence intensity.