FIGURE 2.

Cytotoxic effect of Sterne and ΔNOS static culture sups. Bacteria were grown in DMEM (10 ml, 24 h, 37°C, 5% CO₂) in static conditions and the culture sups were prepared. The monolayers of human small-airway lung epithelial cells (HSAECs) were exposed to the bacterial sups for 2 h and the viability of the cells was determined using Resazurin dye as described in Section “Materials and Methods”. The final pH values of the sups and control medium are shown. Asterisks indicate the sups titrated to the pH 5.2 of Sterne sup after cultivation. The error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals of triplicate measurements.