FIGURE 4.

TcpB treatment enhances Lamp-1⁺ marker in late BCVs in infected BMDMs. BMDMs were pre-treated with rTcpB protein (1, 5, or 10 μg/mL) for 2 h and infected with B. abortus for 24 h. Representative confocal micrographs of BMDMs infected with Brucella and treated with rTcpB 10 μg/mL are shown in (A). GFP-expressing Brucella are shown in green and macrophages were labeled with DAPI in blue and anti-LAMP1 in red. LAMP-1-positive BCVs are exemplified by arrows and BCVs showing weak or no association with LAMP-1 are exemplified by arrowheads. Scale bar corresponds to 5 μm. (B) The percentage of LAMP1-positive BCVs was scored per cell 24 hpi. Data are means ± SE of BCVs showing LAMP-1 labeling per cell. Significant differences in relation to the control are designated by ^∗∗p ≤ 0.01 and ^∗∗∗p ≤ 0.001 (one-way ANOVA).