Figure 9. The thrombin inhibitor argatroban antagonizes staphylococcal barrier activity.

S. aureus Newman was grown in 3D-CoG/Fib in the presence of different argatroban concentrations. After 16 h of growth, the growth phenotypes were analyzed: at 10 nM argatroban, the MAM was diminished and at higher concentrations also pseudocapsule formation was absent (A). Challenging the system with neutrophils after 16–17 h revealed loss of both barrier functions in a concentration-dependent manner (B). Scale bar 25 µm. The images are representative of three independent experiments. Data are averaged from three independent experiments.