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Figure 10 | BMC Microbiology

Figure 10

From: Inducible expression of beta defensins by human respiratory epithelial cells exposed to Aspergillus fumigatusorganisms

Figure 10

Analysis of the defensin expression and its localisation in pneumocytes A549 exposed to live A. fumigatus. A. RT-PCR analysis of defensin mRNA expression by human pneumocyte A549 cells exposed to live A. fumigatus. A549 human epithelial bronchial cells (5 × 106) were grown in six well plates for 24 hours. The cells were then exposed either to live A. fumigatus conidia or latex beads. After 18 hours of incubation, the cells were washed with PBS, mRNA was isolated by TRIzol Reagent, and RT-PCR was performed as described above in Methods. Specific primer pairs (Table 1) were used for RNA amplification. The size of the amplified product is indicated and was as predicted. Cells were cultivated in a control well in the absence of A. fumigatus. As an additional control, the cells were exposed to 106 latex beads for the same period. GAPDH was uniformly expressed. One of the four results is shown. B. Immunofluorescence detection of hBD2 in the A549 exposed to live A. fumigatus conidia. A549 cells were seeded at 5 × 105 cells per well in 1 ml of DMEM/F12 on 18-mm-diameter cover slips in 12 well plates in triplicate and grown for 16 h at 37°C. After washing the cover slips with 1%BSA/PBS, the cells were exposed to either latex beads or live A. fumigatus conidia for 18 hours. Il-1β was used as a positive control. Some cells were treated with TNF-α. Following washing with PBS, the cells were fixed with a paraformaldehyde solution for 30 min at 37°C. The slides were then incubated in 1% BSA/PBS, followed by a solution of 10% normal goat serum. After washing, polyclonal rabbit anti-human hBD2 at a dilution of 1:250 was applied as primary antibody overnight at 4°C, followed by incubation with FITC-labelled goat anti-rabbit secondary antibody at a dilution of 1:300 for 4 hours at room temperature. After washing, the cover slips were mounted on slides with ProLong antifade Vectashield. Samples were viewed with a Zeiss fluorescence microscope using ×400 magnification. The arrows indicate the cells stained with anti-hBD2 antibody. The percentage of stained cells was computed from triplicates of four experiments. Means followed by the same letter are not significantly different. +, presence; -, absence of Il-1β, TNF-α, live A. fumigatus organism and latex beads. The punctuated localisation of the signal, which is concentrated adjacent to the nucleus (arrow), was observed. The data shown are representative of four independent experiments.

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