Fig. 1.

Live GC preferentially localize at the cell–cell junction of polarized epithelial cells. Polarized HEC-1-B and T84 cells were apically inoculated with live or gentamicin killed GC (P⁺O⁺ MS11) at a moi of 10 and 100 respectively for 2, 4 and/or 6 h. Cells were fixed, permeabilized and stained for ZO-1 and GC, and analysed using confocal microscopy. The number of GC clusters in contact with (long arrows) or away from (arrowhead) ZO-1 staining that marks the cell–cell junction was quantified by visual inspection. Shown are representative images (A) of T84 cells 6 h post inoculation and the average percentages (± SD) of GC clusters at the cell–cell junction of HEC-1-B (B) and T84 cells (C) from three independent experiments (~ 50 GC clusters per experiment). Scale bar, 10 μm. *P ≤ 0.05; ** P ≤ 0.01; and ***P ≤ 0.001.