Figure 3.

Effect of cytokine stimulation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) on the fate of intracellular (IC) Pseudomonas aeruginosa: (a) and (b), cells treated with gentamicin at 300 µg/ml; (c) and (d), cells treated with gentamicin at 50 µg/ml. (a) and (c): IC concentrations of P. aeruginosa in stimulated HUVEC at 5 hr postinfection were significantly lower than at 1 hr postinfection (*P < 0·02). (b) and (d): percentage of IC bacteria in control and in stimulated HUVEC at 5 hr postinfection, regarding the bacterial concentration at 1 hr postinfection as 100%. *P < 0·001 and P = 0·02 for (b) and (d), respectively. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM, and values were obtained from at least three independent assays carried out in triplicate.