Figure 4. IL-26 binds directly to M. leprae bacilli.
(A and C) Confocal microscopic images of Alexa 488–IL-26 (green) cultured with M. leprae (red) for 6 hours. Data shown are representative of 4 independent experiments. Scale bars: 5 μm. (B) Quantification of number of free bacilli or IL-26–bound bacilli (left) and percentage of free or IL-26–bound bacilli of total bacilli counts (right). (D) Measurement of M. leprae bacilli thickness from the confocal microscopy images in C. Media contained Alexa Fluor 488 dye as a control. Data represent the mean ± SEM (n = 50 bacilli for each condition). Data shown are representative of 4 independent experiments. ***P < 0.001, by repeated-measures 1-way ANOVA.
