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. 2016 Oct 19;6:35616. doi: 10.1038/srep35616

Figure 6. Schematic demonstration of a possible mechanism of medium-induced inactivation of CD11 against C. difficile.

Figure 6

(a) The stabilization of wall teichoic acids (WTAs) in growth medium leads to a lack of cell binding or cell wall cleavage by CD11, and the cells are not killed by CD11. (b) The conformational change of WTAs in PBS allows for the access of CD11 to the cell wall, the digestion of the stem peptides from the peptidoglycan, and the lysis of C. difficile cells. (c) Partial removal of WTAs by tunicamycin increases the accessibility of the cell wall to CD11 in growth medium, and leads to cell wall degradation and cell lysis by CD11.