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Copyright of Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage / Quaderni di Scienza della Conservazione is the property of Salvatore Lorusso and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective. The main objective of this study was to select lactic acid bacteria strains with antimicrobial activity and to identify and characterize the antimicrobial compounds. Methods. In this study we tested the antimicrobial activity of 153 lactic bacteria strains by disk diffusion method against 6 microbial pathogenic strains isolated from patients with urinary and vaginal infections. Results. Antimicrobial test results revealed that most of lactic acid bacteria strains exhibited high antimicrobial activity against pathogenic microorganisms. For most of lactic bacteria strains antimicrobial activity has been correlated with the production of organic acids and only for two strains with the biosynthesis of bacteriocins. Bacteriocin produced by Lactococcus (Lc.) lactis F2a strain presented a broad spectrum of activity and high activity (51,200 AU/ml) compared with bacteriocins isolated from Lactobacillus (Lb.) paracasei ssp. paracasei JR strain (400 AU/ml). The stability tests of bacteriocin revealed that the bacteriocin produced by Lc. lactis F2a strain, it is stable at acid pH while exposure for long time to 600C causes a drastic decrease in bacteriocin activity. Conclusions. Lactic bacteria strains showed a high antimicrobial activity against both prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathogen strains. Two bacterial strains have bacteriocins. Bacteriocins isolated from Lc. lactis F2a strain showed a high activity and a broad spectrum of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to establish an infection, pathogenic microorganisms have to colonize, survive, multiply, evade the immune system and spread to other tissues [1, 2, 3]. Although some Candida species are normally commensal in humans, in the last decades the frequency and the severity of nosocomial diseases due to Candida strains have increased dramatically [4]. The aim of the present study was to characterize some Candida strains isolated from vulvovaginal infections by determining the virulence and pathogenicity profile. The assessment of the in vitro expression of virulence cell wall associated factors (hyphal formation, adherence to HeLa cell line, biofilm development), soluble secreted enzymes (aspartyl protease, lipase, phospholipase, DN-ase) and Fe3+ accumulation was achieved by phenotypic methods on 13 yeast strains belonging to five Candida (C.) species (C. albicans, C. krusei, C. parapsilopsis, C. catenulata and C. kefyr). Candida sp. strains isolated from vulvovaginal infections showed species/ strain specific virulence profile.