Delay in gap closure in pathogen infected scratch.

<p><b>A.</b> Scratch assay for assessing wound healing in periopathogen challenged primary gingival keratinocytes. The scratch width at the beginning of the scratch assay is represented by D0, wound healing on day 4 is represented in cells with no treatment (control), <i>P. gingivalis</i> and <i>F. nucleatum</i> challenge. Straight line represents the initial scratch boundary while curved line represents the leading edges of the healing wound. <b>B.</b> Graph shows scratch assay in oral primary keratinocytes where gap filling was measured based on the distance between the leading edges of the scratch. The data is average ± SEM from three independent experiments and shows ANOVA using Tukey HSD test. Significant difference between control and bacteria treatment is represented by *p<0.05. Significant difference between bacteria alone and bacteria along with Leupeptin treatment for a time point is represented by +p<0.05. <b>C.</b> CFSE based fluorescence of <i>P. gingivalis</i> co-localizing with actin was used to confirm presence of bacteria inside keratinocytes incubated without and with leupeptin. Bacteria inside keratinocyte is indicated by arrows. <b>D.</b> Graph represents the number of bacteria found within infected keratinocytes over period of 9 days thereby indicating the internalization of bacteria in medium without and with leupeptin. Values represent the average from three independent experiments.