Surface-Associated Lipoproteins Link Enterococcus faecalis Virulence to Colitogenic Activity in IL-10-Deficient Mice Independent of Their Expression Levels
Fig 5
E. faecalis biofilm and associated microcolony formation are dependent on epaB.
(A) Microcolonies formed by E. faecalis OG1RF, ΔepaB, Δlgt or reconstituted ΔepaB strain in vitro after incubation for 20 hours on a fixed monolayer of murine Ptk6 intestinal epithelial cells. Representative images stained by immunofluorescence for E. faecalis (red), E-cadherin (intracellular domain, green) and nuclei (blue) showing 3D-reassembling of single stacks and (B) quantitation of total microcolony biomass. (C) Biofilm indices representing total biofilm formation of E. faecalis OG1RF, ΔepaB or Δlgt or reconstituted ΔepaB strain on polystyrene surface after 20 hours incubation stained for biofilm matrix with Hucker’s crystal violet. Differences were considered significant for *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, ****p<0.0001.