FIGURE 4.

SpeB is related to GAS-induced destabilization of intercellular junctions. Caco-2, HaCaT, and Detroit 562 cells were infected with strain NIH35, an speB deletion mutant, or a complemented strain at an MOI of 10 for 6 h (Caco-2 and Detroit 562) or 8 h (HaCaT). Cleavage of E-cadherin, occludin, and JAM-1 was detected in whole cell lysates by Western blot analysis, with β-actin used as a loading control. The graphs below the representative blots show fold changes of band intensities of E-cadherin and occludin normalized to that of β-actin. The data are shown as the means ± S.D. of three independent experiments. *, p < 0.05.