FIG. 1.

Effect of H. pylori OMV on gastric epithelial cell proliferation. AGS cells were grown alone or in the presence of different concentrations of H. pylori OMV from either a cag PAI⁺ toxigenic strain (dark gray bars) or a cag PAI− nontoxigenic strain (light gray bars). Cell proliferation was assessed by examining the incorporation of BrdU 24 h after inoculation, and the results are expressed as percentages of the incorporation observed in untreated cells. The data are means ± standard errors for three to six independent experiments performed in triplicate. An asterisk indicates that the results for a treatment are statistically significantly different (P < 0.05) from the results for untreated cells.