Fig. 3. C. difficile toxin B completely inhibits pinocytic uptake into intracellular vacuoles during EC morphogenesis. Three-dimensional EC cultures were allowed to develop in the presence of carboxytetramethyl rhodamine added to culture media (2 µg/ml). After 4 hours, collagen matrix was digested with collagenase for 10 minutes at 37°C in M199. Cells were plated onto pronectin-F coated coverslips and allowed to attach before rinsing off the free dye. Coverslips were mounted onto culture media and photographed live under phase contrast (A,C) and fluorescence (B,D) microscopy. The control group (A,B) are shown with toxin-B-treated cells (C,D). Bar=50 µm.

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