Germination of Bacillus cereus Spores Is Induced by Germinants from Differentiated Caco-2 Cells, a Human Cell Line Mimicking the Epithelial Cells of the Small Intestine

Spores of 11 enterotoxigenic strains of Bacillus cereus isolated from foods and humans adhered with similar efficiencies to Caco-2 cells, whereas subsequent germination triggering was observed with only 8 of these strains. Notably, Hep-2 cells did not trigger germination, while spores of all strains displayed similar germination efficiencies in brain heart infusion broth.