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Figure 1 | BMC Microbiology

Figure 1

From: Comparative molecular analyses of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto strains B31 and N40D10/E9 and determination of their pathogenicity

Figure 1

Binding of B. burgdorferi strains B31 (A and C) and N40D10/E9 (B and D) to both Vero (epithelial) cells and EA.hy926 (endothelial) cells is mediated by heparan sulfate. (A) and (B). Vero cell monolayers were pretreated with the buffer alone (Mock), or with the GAG lyases, heparinase I (HI) to remove heparan sulfate or chondroitinase ABC (Chon. ABC), to cleave chondroitin sulfates from the cell surfaces. Binding of B31 (A) to the Vero cells was significantly higher than that of the N40D10/E9 (B) strain. Although inhibition of binding of both N40D10/E9 and B31 was significant, reduction in binding was more pronounced by N40D10/E9 than B31 when Vero cells were treated with HI (p < 0.05). (C) and (D). EA.hy926 cell monolayers were mock-treated, or pretreated with HI or Chon. ABC enzymes. Removal of heparan sulfate from EA.hy926 cells eliminated the binding of both B31 and N40D10/E9 strains to these cells. The experiments were repeated at least three times using four replicates for each treatment. Each value represents the mean ± SD of quadruplicate samples. Asterisks indicate significant reduction (p < 0.05) in binding percentage compared to mock-treated cells as determined by t-test for pairwise comparison of samples with unequal variance.

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