Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Infection dynamics and virulence potential of clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates in a human airway epithelium model system
doi: 10.1101/2025.04.11.644308
Figure Lengend Snippet: ( ETI) treatment on cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance protein (CFTR) function and infection pattern in cystic fibrosis (CF) cultures. A) Fold change in TEER measurements after 24 hours of ETI treatement (+ ETI) or no treatement (-ETI) in ALI cultures from three CF donors homozygous for ΔF508 mutation. B) TEEC after CFTR stimulation in treated (+ ETI) and untreated (-ETI) cells. Each dot represents one independent donor. C) TEER change after 14 h of infection with PAO1 laboratory strain in treated (+ ETI) and untreated (-ETI). D) Bacterial growth (CFU) after 14 h of infection in the apical (non attached / free bacteria), attached to the epithelium, and basolateral compartment, along with the total number of bacteria. In A,C-D, each dot represents one independent experiment and the mean ± SD is included. Statistical significance was calculated by paired two-sided t-test where **p<0.01 and ****p<0.0001. E) Three-dimensional reconstruction of confocal microscopy images of immunofluorescent staining of CFTR protein in ALI cultures from the CF donors treated (+ ETI) and untreated (-ETI). Green: Anti-CFTR 570 (CFTR protein), Red: Phalloidin (F-actin), Blue: DAPI (nuclei). ALI: air-liquid interface; TEER: transepithelial electrical resistance; TEEC: transepithelial electrical conductance; CFU: colony-forming units.
Article Snippet: To subsequently inhibit CFTR function, a solution containing CFTR inhibitor PPQ-102 30 μM (TargetMol) was added to the apical side.
Techniques: Infection, Mutagenesis, Bacteria, Confocal Microscopy, Staining