fig1

Figure 1. Adhesion of Bifidobacterium spp. and pathogens to intestinal mucus and the effect of bifidobacteria on the adhesion of pathogens. In the first panel, individual adhesion levels (%) of bifidobacterial strains are shown. In the other panels, the “no treatment” condition represents the adhesion level of the pathogen on intact mucus, followed by the adhesion level after the mucus has been pretreated with a given bifidobacterial strain. Data are presented as mean adhesion percentages calculated from three independent experiments, with error bars indicating standard deviation. Data normality distribution was tested using Shapiro–Wilk test. For bifidobacteria, the statistical significance of the data was evaluated by one-way ANOVA with Tukey multiple comparisons test. For other bacteria, one-way ANOVA with Dunnett multiple comparisons test was used. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01, ^***P < 0.001, ^****P < 0.0001. Created with BioRender.com. ANOVA: Analysis of variance.