Attaching and effacing (A/E) lesion formation by enteropathogenic E. coli on human intestinal mucosa is dependent on non-LEE effectors
Fig 5
A/E lesion formation in human intestinal biopsies infected with EPEC effector mutant strains.
Representative scanning electron micrographs of human duodenal biopsies infected with the indicated EPEC strains. WT EPEC and EPEC9 strains induce the characteristic A/E lesions in the intestinal mucosal surface, forming bacterial microcolonies (asterisk) and elongation of microvilli at the periphery of the microcolony (arrowheads). Biopsies infected with EPEC2, EPEC1, EPEC0 show a smooth epithelial surface without any adherent bacteria. Most biopsies infected by EPEC2LEE (10/11) also showed an intact mucosal surface without bacteria. Scale bar 2 μm.