FIGURE 3.

SLS is related to GAS-induced destabilization of intercellular junctions. A, Caco-2 cells were grown on Millicell filters and then infected with NIH35 strain, the sagA deletion mutant, or the complemented strain. After 6 h of infection, the reduction in TER was measured. The TER value of non-infected cells was set at 100%. Data are represented as the mean ± S.D. (error bars) of sextuplet samples from a representative experiment. *, p < 0.01. B, Caco-2 and HaCaT cells were infected with strain NIH35, the sagA deletion mutant, or the complemented strain at an MOI of 10 for 6 or 8 h, respectively. Cleavage of E-cadherin and occludin was detected in whole cell lysates by Western blot analysis as described under “Experimental Procedures.” β-Actin served as a loading control. The graphs below the representative blot show -fold change of E-cadherin and occludin normalized to β-actin. The intensity of the bands was quantified using Scion Image. Data are represented as the mean ± S.D. of three independent experiments. *, p < 0.05.