Figure 3.

P. gingivalis induces loss of E-cadherin in infected 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 an E-cadherin antibody. The absolute intensities of E-cadherin bands were measured using ImageJ software and the relative intensities were calculated using β-tubulin as a loading control. (B,C) Micrographs of OECs infected with P. gingivalis for 120 h imaged on Zeiss Axio imager at 40X magnification. Uninfected and P. gingivalis-infected cells were fixed, permeabilized, and immunostained with a monoclonal E-cadherin antibody (green) and an antibody for P. gingivalis (red). Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). At least three separate fields containing an average of 20 OECs were studied in each of the three independent experiments performed in duplicate. Bar 10 μm.