Long-term alcohol exposure renders Caco-2 wounds more vulnerable to bacteria-induced damage.

<p>(<b>A–H</b>) Caco-2 cell monolayers were scrape wounded and infected with indicated bacteria (MOI = 5). Time-lapse videomicroscopy was used to assess healing. (<b>A</b>) Representative frames of the <i>P. aeruginosa</i>-infected wounds are shown. Wound areas were measured relative to the original wound size and the tabulated results are shown in (<b>B</b>). For simplicity, the wound images for other pathogens have been omitted and only the tabulated data are shown in (<b>C–H</b>). As indicated, long-term alcohol exposure renders wounds more susceptible to damage induced by all the pathogens except <i>Listeria monocytogenes</i> (<b>H</b>). (* Indicates significance, <i>p</i><0.05, n = 3 for each bacteria, magnification is 100×).