Figure 6.

Integrin α3 and integrin α6 knockdown differentially affect the CD151 level of the cell membrane and PsV-binding. HaCaT cells were transfected with siRNA and two days later incubated without or with HPV16 PsVs for 5 h. Cells were fixed, permeabilized, immunostained for CD151 (green) and L1 (red), and imaged by STED microscopy. Images are displayed employing linear lookup tables. For A and D different scalings were applied, although all panels in A or D have the same arbitrary scaling. (A) Integrin α6 knockdown. For each condition, overlays from an overview and a magnified view are shown. (B) Average CD151 immunostaining intensity and (C) the PsVs particle density (100% correspond to 1.4 particles/μm²). (D–F) As (A–C), showing the integrin α3 knockdown (100% PsV density correspond to 1.2 particles/μm²). Values are shown as means ± SD (n = 60 cells collected from three biological replicates). The unpaired Student’s t-tests compare the conditions as indicated by the bars (B,E) or PsV to PsV and knockdown (C,F) (***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05).