Figure 2.

P. gingivalis increases expression of key EMT-promoting transcription factors (Slug, Snail, and Zeb1) in primary OECs. OECs were incubated with P. gingivalis at an MOI of 100 for 72, 96, and 120 h and compared to an uninfected control. (A) Cell lysates were extracted and immunoblotted with a Slug antibody. The absolute intensities of Slug bands were measured using ImageJ software and the relative intensities were calculated using β-tubulin as a loading control. (B,C) SybrGreen detection of mRNA expression levels of Snail or Zeb1 using qRT-PCR. The data is represented as the mean and standard deviation of three independent experiments. ^**Denotes statistical significance (p < 0.01) as compared to uninfected according to two-tailed Student's t-test.