Fig. 6

Epithelial CP cells response against T. gondii in vitro. A, B Primary cultures of CP epithelial cells were infected for 6 h with reporter T. gondii type II PRU-GFP tachyzoites at MOI = 5, and controls remained non-infected. Cultivated cells were immune-stained for detection of (A) ZO-1 (red) and (B) Claudin-2 (red). DAPI stained the nucleus (blue). GFP-reporter T. gondii (green). Scale bars = 50 µm. C–E Naïve and infected cultures were analyzed for gene expression of (C) cytokines and Ifngr2, (D) ZO-1 (Tjp1) and tight junctions, and (E) MMPs. Bar charts show individual mean values of triplicates from a representative experiment, and the mean + SEM (n = 3) for each time-point analyzed. Data were normalized by naïve means, besides Mmp13 which was not detectable on naïve samples *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01(Student’s t-test)