<i>B. burgdorferi</i> transfer ³H-cholesterol to HeLa cells.

<p><b>A.. </b><i>B. burgdorferi</i> utilized ³H-cholesterol as a substrate for cholesterol glycolipid synthesis; DPM's derived from scraped silica from HPTLC plate. <i>B. burgdorferi</i> incubated with ³H-cholesterol (black bars) utilized ³H-cholesterol as a substrate for cholesterol-glycolipid synthesis and incorporated the radiolabeled sterol into their lipid fraction when compared to unlabeled <i>B. burgdorferi</i> (gray bars). <b>B.</b> Exposure of the HPTLC plate to Kodak BioMax MR film without scraping demonstrates that the ³H-cholesterol was incorporated into the cholesterol-glycolipids. Radioactive cholesterol was not observed in <i>B. burgdorferi</i> incubated with unlabeled cholesterol (middle lane). This data supports the results from HPTLC exposed to UV light from <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003109#ppat-1003109-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1E</a>. <b>C.</b> Spirochetes labeled with 10.0 µCi ³H-cholesterol transfer membrane lipids to HeLa cells. Spirochetes were incubated at an MOI of 1∶1, 10∶1, 20∶1, and 40∶1 with HeLa cells for 2 hours at 37°C in BSK-II. HeLa cells were analyzed for transfer by liquid scintillation counting. <b>D.. </b><i>B. burgdorferi</i> transfer ³H-cholesterol labeled glycolipids to HeLa cells. Radiolabeled <i>B. burgdorferi</i> were incubated with HeLa cells. The bacteria were removed and the HeLa cell lipid extracts were analyzed by liquid scintillation. Experiments <b>A, C,</b> and <b>D</b> represent the mean ± standard error of the mean from three separate experiments.