Figure 1.

Adhesion of different strains of C. perfringens (as colony-forming units, CFUs) to CHIC-8E11 cells (A) and the effect of the CFS from different strains of C. perfringens on CHIC-8E11 cell permeability (B). (A) Adhesion was measured after 1 h at 37 °C in 5% CO₂ and expressed as the percentage of CFUs adhered to CHIC-8E11 cells out of the total CFUs loaded onto cells at the start of the incubation. Experiments were performed three times with three replicates per experiment (nine replicates in total). (B) Permeability was measured using the fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran (FITC-D) permeability assay and expressed as the amount (µg) of FD4 in the basolateral compartment of the cell culture inserts after 2 h incubation with C. perfringens CFS or NetB at 37 °C in an atmosphere of 5% CO₂. Experiments were performed 3 times with 1–3 replicates per experiment (7 replicates in total). Values represent means ± SD; ***, **, *, statistically significantly different at p < 0.001, p < 0.01 and p < 0.1, respectively; n.s., non-significant at p < 0.05.