Journal: Virulence

Article Title: Integrated transcriptomic and proteomic analysis reveals inflammatory activation and blood-brain barrier disruption during meningitis-associated extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli infection

doi: 10.1080/21505594.2026.2670939

Figure Lengend Snippet: RS218 infection induces cell death and tight junction disruption in vitro . (A) Relative LDH release in RS218-infected hCMEC/D3 cells pretreated with calcium chelator BAPTA-AM (10 μM), necroptosis inhibitor Necrostatin-1 (10 μM), caspase-1 inhibitor VX-765 (10 μM), or caspase-3 inhibitor Z-DEVD-FMK (20 μM). (B) LDH release in BV2 cells and murine peritoneal macrophages (PMs) infected with RS218 at MOI = 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 for 1 h and 2 h. (C) Immunofluorescence staining of tight junction protein ZO-1 in hCMEC/D3 cells following RS218 infection. Representative images show DAPI (blue), ZO-1 (green), and merged channels in control and infected cells. Scale bars, 50 μm. Bar graphs show ZO-1 positive area and fluorescence intensity in infected cells relative to controls ( n = 3).

Article Snippet: For inhibitor experiments, hCMEC/D3 cells were pretreated for 1 h with BAPTA-AM (10 μM), Necrostatin-1 (10 μM), VX-765 (10 μM), or Z-DEVD-FMK (20 μM) (all from MedChemExpress, USA) prior to RS218 infection.

Techniques: Infection, Disruption, In Vitro, Immunofluorescence, Staining, Control, Fluorescence