Fig. 3.
Disruption of tight and adherens junctions of oral epithelial cells induced by HIV-1 virions and tat and gp120. (a) Polarized tonsil epithelial cells were treated with HIV-1SF33 virions and active and inactive tat+gp120 proteins in the absence or presence of the MAPK inhibitor U0126. On day 5, cells were fixed and immunostained for occludin (red) and E-cadherin (green) and analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. Cell nuclei were stained blue. (b and c) Cells lacking expression of occludin or E-cadherin were counted in at least 10 fields, and their average numbers in three independent experiments are presented as the percentage of cells lacking occludin or E-cadherin expression. Error bars indicate sem (n=3).