Fig. 2.

S-layer protein-coated or uncoated cell wall fragments differently protect adherens junctions from F4⁺ETEC-induced injury. Caco-2/TC7 cells were: untreated (control, C), infected with F4⁺ETEC (E), treated with S-layer protein-coated cell wall fragments (S-CWF) or uncoated cell wall fragments (U-CWF), co-treated with S-CWF or U-CWF and E (S-CWF + E or U-CWF + E, respectively), pre-treated with S-CWF or U-CWF before F4⁺ETEC infection (prS-CWF + E or prU-CWF + E, respectively). Cells were labelled with specific primary antibodies for E-cadherin and β-catenin, followed by FITC- and TRITC-conjugated secondary antibodies for E-cadherin and β-catenin, respectively. The figure shows the displacement of the proteins from cell-cell junctions in F4⁺ETEC infected and U-CWF + F4⁺ETEC treated cells (arrows). The regular cell-cell interactions is preserved in cells pre-treated with S-CWF or co-incubated with S-CWF and ETEC. An irregular staining of the proteins is present only in few cells pre-treated with U-CWF (arrows). Each figure is representative of three independent immunofluorescence assays (63 × magnification). Bars represent 10 μm