Fig. 2
Effects of PA lung infection on BBB permeability and cell–cell junction expression. Representative NIR fluorescence images of whole brains obtained from control and PA infected mice (OD600 0.3) showing the distribution of (a) 10-kDa and (c) 70-kDa tracers within the tissue. b, d Summary data showing BBB paracellular permeability of 10-kDa and 70-kDa fluorescence tracers. Mann–Whitney test, P < 0.05 vs. control (uninfected) group. e Time course of BBB permeability changes to small size solutes as measured by NaFl uptake starting at 24 h post-infection to 1-month post-infection (OD600 0.3). Kruskal–Wallis test, P = 0.01 and P = 0.0002 vs. control (uninfected) group. f Summary data showing mRNA expression levels of VE-cadherin, occludin and claudin-5 in brains harvested from control and PA infected mice at 24 h, 7 days and 1 month after infection. Kruskal–Wallis test, P = 0.01 and P = 0.003 and P = 0.002 vs. control (uninfected) group. g VE-cadherin, occludin and claudin-5 immunoblotting in brain homogenates obtained from control and lung infected (24 h) mice, and quantification of their protein abundance relative to β-actin loading control. h Representative confocal images of brain cortex from control and PA-infected (24 h) mice of VE-cadherin and claudin-5 (red) co-stained with lectin (blue, magenta-merged). In all graphs, each point indicates data from an individual animal, bar graphs (columns and error bars) show mean ± S.E.M