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. 2016 Jul 29;6:80. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2016.00080

Figure 3.

Figure 3

R. montanensis shows a defect in association with THP-1-derived macrophages. PMA-differentiated THP-1 cells and Vero cells were infected with R. montanensis (MOI = 10). After 60 min of infection, cells were fixed and stained for immunofluorescence analysis with rabbit anti-Rickettsia polyclonal antibody (NIH/RML I7198), followed by Alexa Fluor 488 (green) to stain R. montanensis, DAPI to visualize the host nuclei (blue) and Phalloidin to illustrate the host cytoplasm (red). (A,B) Representative immunofluorescence images of R. montanensis association assays in Vero (A) and macrophage-like (B) cells. Each row shows, from left to right nuclei staining, rickettsia staining, actin staining, and the merged image. Scale bar = 10 μm. (C) Rickettsia and mammalian cells were counted and results are expressed as the ratio of rickettsiae to mammalian cells. At least 200 host nuclei were counted for each experimental condition. Results are shown as the mean ± SD (****P < 0.0001).