A Model of Intracellular Persistence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Airway Epithelial Cells

Figure 1

Intracellular P.a. survival in an airway epithelial cell infection model. (a) Intracellular bacterial burden and (b) cytotoxicity after infection with different MOI. (c) Intracellular bacterial burden and (d) cytotoxicity at different maintenance concentrations of tobramycin. For all experiments, BEAS-2B cells were infected with P.a. strain PAO1 at MOI 1, unless stated otherwise. After 4 h p.i., extracellular bacteria were first killed with 100 μg/mL tobramycin × 15 min for all experiments. For (a) and (b), AEC cultures were then maintained in 100 μg/mL tobramycin for the remainder of the experiment, while the tobramycin maintenance concentrations ranged from 12.5 to 100 μg/mL for (c) and (d) as indicated. The intracellular bacterial burden was measured by viable CFU count (detection limit shown as green dashed line), and cytotoxicity was measured by LDH release assay. Results shown are from data pooled from ≥4 biological replicates (≥2 independent experiments). ; ; .

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)