FIG. 5.

P. aeruginosa traversal of human corneal epithelia in vitro after siRNA knockdown of AMPs. Cells were treated with siRNA specific to hBD-1 to hBD-3 or LL-37 or with a scrambled siRNA control (SC) stimulated with bacterial culture supernatant (1:5 in KGM-2 medium) for 4 h prior to inoculation with 10⁶ CFU of PAO1 in the continued presence of the supernatant. Viable counts of the apical (A) and basal (B) compartments showed significant increases in bacterial survival in the apical compartment, and in bacterial traversal to the basal compartment, in siRNA-treated cells versus the scrambled control at 8 h postinoculation. Effects on bacterial survival and traversal were greater when AMPs were knocked down in combination. *, P < 0.001 (by a Student's t test) in each instance, compared to scrambled siRNA controls. Results represent data from one of three independent experiments.