Figure 1

Lactobacillus strains consistently associate with the human epithelial model in the absence of apoptosis. (Figure 1a) Transmission electron microscopic image illustrates clear association between the L. jensenii electron dense bodies and the morphologically intact vaginal epithelial cells. No morphological signs of apoptosis are present. Bar represents 2 microns with a magnification of x 4800. (Figure 1b) Caspase-3 cleavage represented by % cleaved over total caspase harvested from vaginal (Vk2/E6E7) epithelial lysates after 24 h colonization with L. jensenii 1153 wild type (WT) and bioengineered L. jensenii 1153–1666, 3666 and gfp strains or treatment with 1 μM Staurosporine positive control. Bars display means and SEM from triplicate cultures in one of three experiments. ** P<0.01 different from medium control.