HEp-2 cells were pre-incubated with medium alone, pronase (50 and 500 μg/ml), and phospholipase A2 (200 μg/ml), respectively, prior to the adhesion assay. (B) Adhesion of E. coli to HEp-2 cells with pre-treatment

of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) against α2, β1, and α2β1 integrins. (C) Adhesion of E. coli to HEp-2 cells with pre-treatment of polyclonal antibodies (pAb) against α2 and β1 integrins. (D) Adhesion of E. coli to C2C12 myoblasts and HUVECs. Data represent means of five experiments with triplicate samples in each experiment. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001. It has been proposed that α2β1 and α11β1 integrins might serve as receptors in mediating the Scl1 adherence to epithelial cells [9, 12, 13]. To determine the role of integrins in the Scl1-mediated binding process, we used monoclonal NVP-HSP990 research buy antibodies against α2, β1, and α2β1 integrins, and performed a competition assay. Pretreatment of monoclonal antibodies against α2, β1, and α2β1 integrins to HEp-2 cells did not affect Scl1-mediated increase in the adhesion of E. coli to human epithelial cells (Figure 5B). However, we observed a trend, although not significant, toward reduction in the adhesion of E. coli to HEp-2 cells in the presence of monoclonal α2β1 antibodies, suggesting that α2β1 integrin is involved to some extent in the Scl1-mediated binding process. To avoid the lack of interference of the abovementioned monoclonal antibodies

in the binding interaction, we employed polyclonal antibodies selleck chemicals llc against α2 and β1 integrins. Polyclonal antibodies against α2 and β1 integrins significantly decreased Scl1-mediated adhesion of E. coli to human epithelial cells (Figure 5C). These results suggest that protein receptors α2

and β1 integrins underlie the Scl1-dependent binding to human epithelial cells. To further examine the Scl1-mediated adhesion of E. coli to other eukaryotic cell types known for expression Tenoxicam of collagen receptors, we employed two types of cell lines, C2C12 myoblast and human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) for the adhesion assay. C2C12 cells are known to express β1 integrins [20], whereas primary HUVECs express α2β1 integrins [21]. Our results show that Scl1-expressed E. coli ET3 exhibited significantly increased adherence to both C2C12 and HUVEC cells, compared to HKI-272 control ET2 (Figure 5D). Thus multiple eukaryotic cell types may bind and adhere to Scl1-expressed E. coli. Discussion The Scl1 protein in the S. pyogenes M29588 strain (M92 type) contains a predicted signal peptidase cleavage site on Ala38, 71 amino acids in V region, 46 GXX repeats in CL region, 6 conserved repeats (PGEKAPEKS) in L region, and followed by a cell wall anchor motif (LPATGE). It has been proposed that the V-region primary sequence in Scl1 is M type associated [7]. Based on the previous study in characterization of the scl1 gene among 21 different M type strains [6], the length of V region in M92 strain is identical to those in M49 and M56 strains.