Surface characteristics of lactobacilli isolated from human vagina

In the present paper, the taxonomic classification of 134 lactobacilli isol ates from vaginal samples of 200 women of Tucuman, Argentina, is reported. They were clustered in three metabolic groups of the genus Lactobacillus, m ost belonging to the obligately homofermentative group (56%), mainly repres ented by Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp, delbrueckii and L. acidophilus, I n the facultatively heterofermentative group (24%), the dominant species we re L, paracasei subsp, paracasei and L, agilis, and in the obligately heter ofermentative group (20%), L, brevis was the dominant species. All strains were studied for surface characteristics and adhesion-predicting properties . A correlation between the methods employed for hydrophobicity testing of the different isolates (Microbial Adhesion to Hydrocarbons and Salt Aggrega tion Test) is reported. Most strains were highly hydrophobic. Their hemaggl utination capability with human erythrocytes was also tested, which was pos itive only for a few strains, Some isolates were self-aggregating. From our results, strains that shared the properties assayed were selected for furt her testing of some other desirable characteristics, such as antagonistic s ubstance production, adhesion to biological substrates, and appropriate tec hnological properties, to suggest the elaboration of a probiotic for the va ginal tract.