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. 2014 Mar 27;9(3):e93419. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093419

Figure 3. HIV-1 burden was significantly altered by VMB colonization of VEC multilayer co-cultures.

Figure 3

To directly study the impact of representative VMB upon HIV-1 infection and replication VEC/TZM-bl (A) or VEC/MDM (B) co-culture multilayers were established in 96 well format. Matured cultures were colonized and virally challenged as described in the methods. Representative healthy (dark green bars) or pathogenic (blue bars) VMB, single species bacteria or the probiotic Lactobacilli mixture (light green bars) are indicated on the x-axes. Mean genomic HIV-1 titer is shown on the y axes. Statistical comparisons were completed by one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni's or Dunnett's multiple comparison correction. A “*” indicates a significant difference (P<0.05) relative to the uncolonized viral burden. A “#” indicates a significant difference (P<0.05) with the suppressive CST III VMB. Triplicate cultures were created and the study was replicated twice. Poly-I:C (0.1 mg/ml) was utilized as an inducer of HIV-1 infection and replication and was applied at the time of colonization.