Fig 4. Inhibition of T. pallidum attachment to plasma and cellular fibronectin by recombinant TP0136 proteins.

T. pallidum attachment to plasma and cellular fibronectin-coated slides is inhibited by slide pre-incubation with 800 pmol/well of recombinant proteins based on the TP0136 sequences form Nichols Houston and Nichols Seattle. T. pallidum σ70 and PBS were used as negative controls. Experiments were repeated twice using each time triplicate wells per condition. Bars represent the mean number of T. pallidum cells counted in 10 fields of triplicate experiments ± standard error. Significance was assessed by comparing wells coated with recombinant proteins to the PBS control wells with Student’s unpaired two-tailed t-test and significance set at p≤0.05. For comparison between different protein concentrations ANOVA test was used (*p<0.05; **p<0.001).