Figure 1.

Binding of GFP-PAO1 to airway epithelial cells. GFP-PAO1 was added to cultured cells for one hour at 37°C, washed, and the cultures lysed and fluorescence determined (and expressed in arbitrary units). A and B, 9HTEo- cells, C, 16 HBEo- cells. For the 9HTEo- cells, binding appears to saturate at about 10⁸ organisms/well (A) but for 16 HBEo- cells, binding increases with increasing dose of bacteria over the range tested (C). The 9HTEo- cells change GFP-PAO1 binding with addition of a GM1 or GM1, or with neuraminidase treatment (B) (*, significantly different from no treatment, p < 0.05), but the 16 HBEo- cells do not (C).