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. 2009 Mar 5;4(3):e4713. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004713

Figure 2. Effects of S. flexneri infection on the epithelium morphology of the human colon assessed by optical microscopy.

Figure 2

(A) Infection of the colonic specimen for 3 h with the invasive strain of S. flexneri (M90T) induced significant desquamation of the surface epithelium. (B) In tissue infected for 3 h with the non-invasive strain (BS176), only slight desquamation could be observed. (C) No surface epithelium desquamation was observed in control non-infected tissues cultured for 3 h. (D) Quantitative analysis of colonic morphological alterations revealed that M90T induced a significant desquamation of the surface epithelium as compared to tissues infected with BS176 and non-infected tissues. (E) In addition, M90T induced a significant reduction in the height of the surface epithelium as compared to BS176 and non infected tissues. Data are expressed as mean±SEM (n = 10, * p<0.05).