Table 4.
Removal of chondroitin sulfate GAGs from the surfaces of epithelial cells diminishes binding by spirochetes expressing diverse DbpA alleles
| Plasmid | Mean binding (%) ± SEa |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mock digestion | Heparinase | Heparatinase | ChonABC | |
| Vector control | 2.9 ± 0.2 | NA | NA | NA |
| pDbpAN40-D10/E9 | 10.3 ± 0.7 | 8.3 ± 1.3 | 10.2 ± 0.9 | 0.6 ± 0.2* |
| pDbpAB356 | 17.0 ± 2.4 | 17.6 ± 0.5 | 23.6 ± 2.8 | 0.2 ± 0.1* |
| pDbpA297 | 33.7 ± 3.3 | 34.8 ± 3.3 | 42.3 ± 2.3 | 2.0 ± 0.6* |
| pDbpAPBr | 42.3 ± 1.3 | 38.4 ± 3.0 | 42.6 ± 0.6 | 1.1 ± 1.0* |
| pDbpAVS461 | 6.6 ± 0.4 | 4.6 ± 0.8 | 5.5 ± 0.3 | 0.5 ± 0.2* |
a
Binding of radiolabeled transformants to 293 epithelial monolayers was determined after pretreatment of cells with the indicated lyase, as described previously (15, 16). ChonABC, chondroitinase ABC. Each value represents the mean of four independent determinations ± SE. For all strains, <2% of bacteria bound to identically treated wells without mammalian cells (data not shown). *, Significant (P < 0.05) difference in binding to mock-treated versus lyase-treated monolayers as determined by Student t test analysis. NA, not applicable.