FIG. 2.

Time course of H. pylori OMV effect on epithelial cell proliferation. AGS cells were treated with 0.05 μg (A) or 10 μg (B) of OMV from a cag PAI⁺ toxigenic strain (dark gray bars) or a cag PAI− nontoxigenic strain (light gray bars) of H. pylori for either 24, 3, or 1 h before the rate of proliferation was measured. The results are expressed as percentages of the values obtained for untreated cells. The data are means ± standard errors for five (A) or two (B) 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.