AGS treated cells with 40 mg/ml L. lactis subsp. Lactis 44Lac se- cretions for 48 h were exploited for flow cytometry assessments using the BD Bioscience Annexin V-FITC Kit (BD Biosciences, USA). According to the kit instrument, twice-washed cells (1 106 cells/ mL) with cold PBS (pH 7.2) were re-suspended in a 100 mL binding buffer, 10 mL PI (Propidium Iodide) solution, and 5 mL Annexin V- FITC for 15 min at room temperature and under dark conditions. A total of 400 mL binding buffer was again added to each tube. As- sessments were then conducted using the FACS-Calibur flow cy- tometer (BD Biosciences, USA)