Figure 3.

Effects of caspase inhibition on Blastocystis ST-7-induced decrease in transepithelial resistance (TER) of Caco-2 monolayers. Confluent monolayers of Caco-2 cells were coincubated for 24 h with ST-7 after pretreatment of cells with broad-spectrum caspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk. Thereafter, TER was measured as described in Section 2. Pretreatment of Caco-2 cells with caspase inhibitor considerably rescued these cells from Blastocystis ST-7-induced effect (P value < 0.01). Cytochalasin D (Cyt-D) was used as a positive control in decreasing TER. Values are means ± standard error (error bars) (n = 6).