Assay. S. pneumoniae adhesion was assayed using fluorescein-isothiocyanate-(FITC-) labeled S. pneumoniae as previously described [26] . Briefly, a bacterial suspension in 0.1 M NaCl-50 mM sodium carbonate buffer (pH9.5) at 1 × 10 8 CFU/mL was prepared. FITC isomer-I (Dojindo Laboratories, Kumamoto, Japan) was added at a concentration of 1 mg/mL, and the mixture was incubated at 4 • C for 1 h. The cells were washed three times with PBS (−).