gastrointestinal -GI- infection is one of the most common types of infectious diseases and use of probiotic strains in the control such infections represent a promising approach. In this study, Lactobacillus fermentum strain 4-17 was isolated from kashkineh, an Iranian cereal fermented food, and identified by sequencing its 16S rRNA gene with universal primers. Its probiotic features, including resistance to acid, bile tolerance, antibacterial activity, resistance to intestinal and gastric juices and hydrophobicity were evaluated. The ability of the strain to adhere to human intestinal cells as well as the anti-adhesion effect of L. fermentum strain 4-17 against E. coli isolated from patients with urinary tract infection, was investigated. L. fermentum strain 4-17 was capable of surviving at low pH values, bile salts and GI tract conditions. It showed 43 % cell hydrophobicity. The adhesion level of L. fermentum strain 4-17 to human colon adenocarcinoma Caco-2 cells was 8.5 % which was also confirmed by scanning electron microscopy -SEM-. Furthermore, this strain showed appropriate anti-adhesion properties -including competition, inhibition and replacement properties- against human pathogenic bacteria. These data suggest that L. fermentum strain 4-17 could be examined further for its useful properties and introduced as a novel candidate probiotic to control GI infection disease.

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