Jalaluddin Sheikh, John R. Czeczulin, Susan Harrington, Susan Hicks, Ian R. Henderson, Chantal Le Bouguénec, Pierre Gounon, Alan Phillips, James P. Nataro
Role of aap in epithelial cell adherence. Assays were performed for 3 hours in DMEM–0.5% glucose with 0.2 mM IPTG at 37°C in atmosphere. (a) 042; (b) 042aap; (c) 042aap(pAap). (d and e) The standard HEp-2 cell adherence assay was performed using strain 042aap, but with pure Aap (d) or pure BSA (e) added concurrently with the bacterial inoculum. Each protein was added to a final concentration of 0.1 mg/ml. (f) Quantitation of HEp-2 cell adherence on confluent monolayers growing in DMEM without IPTG (042 and 042aap) or with indicated IPTG concentration [042aap(pAap)]. Bacteria were removed from glass using 1% Triton X-100 and quantitated by viable count. Assays were performed in triplicate, and means are illustrated in histograms with error bars indicating SE. *P < 0.05 vs. 042 by one-tailed t test of log-transformed data; **P < 0.05 vs. 042aap by one-tailed t test of log-transformed data.