The fixed membranes were subsequently embedded into paraffin wax blocks using standard learn more laboratory techniques. Sections of 4 μm-thickness were cut off the paraffin blocks and were placed on StarFrost® slides (Waldemar Knittel Glasbearbeitungs-

GmbH, E7080 in vivo Germany). To localize different groups of major intestinal bacterial, the obtained slides were hybridized with probes Bif164 for bifidobacteria and Fprau0645 for Faecalibacterium prausnitzii as described in Harmsen et al. [65]. To visualize all the bacteria, the hybridizations were combined with the universal Eub338 probe, labeled with either rhodamine or FITC to contrast the labels of the group-specific probes. These slides were visualized using a Leica Epi-fluorescence microscope (Leica, Germany) and a Zeiss, LSM 780 Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) (Zeiss Jena, Germany). The obtained

pictures were evaluated using ImageJ software. Cytokines detection: the supernatants from the cells compartments were assayed for the presence of interleukins IL-8 by using a commercially available ELISA kit and according to the manufacturer’s instruction (Quantikine ELISA, R&D Systems, Minneapolis, USA). Statistically significant differences of the treatment period, as compared to the average of the control period, were evaluated with a Student’s CP673451 two-tailed t-test. Differences were considered significant if p ≤ 0.05. Acknowledgements MM benefitted from an IWT PostDoc grant (OZM 090249) and a grant from FWO-Vlaanderen. PVdA,T VdW and SP from a postdoc grant from FWO-Vlaanderen. BV was a postdoctoral fellow supported by the Concerted Research Initiative of the Ghent University (GOA project 01G013A7). This work was partially supported by a GOA (BOF12/GOA/008) project from Ghent University and Hercules Foundation

and by the EU-funded FP7 Ketotifen project Fibebiotics. The kind help of E. Verbeke, L. Braeckman and Prof. P. Vanoostveldt, as well as the graphical work of Tim Lacoere are also acknowledged. Electronic supplementary material Additional file 1: Figure S1: Computational fluid dynamics simulation of the module chamber under different shear forces. Figure S2. Clustering of DGGE fingerprinting analysis for total bacteria. (PDF 471 KB) References 1. Eckburg PB, Bik EM, Bernstein CN, Purdom E, Dethlefsen L, Sargent M, Gill SR, Nelson KE, Relman DA: Diversity of the human intestinal microbial flora. Science 2005, 308:1635–1638.PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef 2. Lebeer S, Vanderleyden J, de Keersmaecker SC: Genes and molecules of lactobacilli supporting probiotic action. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 2008, 72:728–764.PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef 3. Manning TS, Gibson GR: Microbial-gut interactions in health and disease: prebiotics. Best Pract Res Clin Gastroenterol 2004, 18:287–298.PubMedCrossRef 4. O’Hara AM, Shanahan F: The gut flora as a forgotten organ. EMBO Rep 2006, 7:688–693.PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef 5.

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