Figure 8

Müller glia phagocytize S. aureus and kill them. To assess the phagocytic activity of Müller glia, MIO-M1 cells were challenged with S. aureus (SA) as described in the ‘Materials and Methods’ section. After two hours of incubation, the cells were washed and kept in fresh medium containing gentamicin (200 μg/ml). At the desired time point, cells were lysed. The release of intracellular bacteria was quantitated via serial dilution and plate count. GFP-expressing SA was used to visualize intracellular bacteria. Note: at an earlier time point (eight hours), more colony forming units (CFUs) were observed, indicating that the number of internalized bacteria was greater in comparison to the later time points, where the CFUs are decreased, indicating the intracellular killing of SA over time. The data represent mean ± SD three independent experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using a student’s t-test and the data for various time periods were significantly different from each other (*P < 0.05).