Involvement of <i>A. baumannii</i> OMPA in the adherence of <i>A. baumannii</i> to human lung epithelial cells.

<p>A549 cells were infected for 2 h with 10⁸ cfu/mL of <i>A. baumannii</i> ATCC 19606, 77 or 113-16 strain previously incubated for 1 h with mouse anti-OMPA of <i>A. baumannii</i> (1∶1,000 and 1∶250), rabbit anti-CarO of <i>A. baumannii</i> (1∶25) and control mouse IgG (1∶25). Adherence assay was performed as described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0033073#s4" target="_blank">materials and methods</a>. The effect of treatment on <i>A. baumannii</i> adherence to A549 cells is expressed as the percentage of total untreated <i>A. baumannii</i> adhered to A549 cells. Representative results of three independent experiments are shown and data are the means ± SEM. <i>P</i><0.05: * between untreated and treated groups. OMPA: outer membrane protein A and Ab: antibody.