Fig. 1.

Both S. aureus and PGN modulate Cx isoform mRNA expression differentially in astrocytes. Primary astrocytes were seeded at 10⁶ cells per well in 6-well plates and incubated overnight. The following day, cells were stimulated with either 10⁷ heat-inactivated S. aureus or 10 μg/mL PGN for 6, 12, or 24 h, whereupon total RNA was isolated and examined for Cx26, 30 and 43 expression by qRT-PCR as described in the Materials and Methods. Gene expression levels were calculated after normalizing Cx26 (A), Cx30 (B) and Cx43 (C) signals against the housekeeping gene GAPDH and are presented in relative mRNA expression units (mean ± SEM of three independent experiments). Significant differences between untreated versus S. aureus- or PGN-stimulated astrocytes are denoted with asterisks (*P < 0.05; **P < 0.001).