EspO promotes neutrophile transmigration.

(A) Network analysis illustrating the impact of ΔespO-regulated IECs’ proteins on chemotaxis, cell movement of granulocytes. (B) Representative immunostaining of neutrophils (Ly6G, green), C. rodentium (red) and DNA (blue) on colonic section from mice infected with WT, ΔespO and ΔespO-pespO and uninfected mice at day 8 DPI (n = 8) (scale bar 100 μm). (C) Quantification reveals a significantly decreased number of neutrophils recruited to the site of infection in mice infected with ΔespO compared to WT and the complemented strain (*: Kruskal-Wallis test with p-value < 0.05, bars represent mean).