Figure 4.

Expression of Cnm mediates bacterial adherence to aortic valve sections. A competition assay was developed to test the contribution of Cnm toward bacterial adherence to human aortic valves ex vivo. A 1:1 mixed infection of the valve sections was allowed for 90 min using Cnm⁺ and Cnm⁻ strains. The competitive index (CI) was calculated based on the initial inocula, where a value of “=1” represents no difference and “>1” represents preferred binding by the numerator strain.

^#P < 0.05