The involvement of the axostyle in the cytoadherence of the TH17 isolate.

The trophozoites of TH17 isolate were pretreated with DMSO or TPI. A. the trophozoites cultured on a glass slide were examined by IFA using anti-α-tubulin or anti-α-actin antibodies. B. Axostyles in the trophozoites co-cultured with hVECs were observed by SEM. The arrowheads indicate axostyle (Ax); anterior flagellum (AF); recurrent flagellum (RF). C. Protein lysates from treated TH17 trophozoites were subjected to western blotting using anti-α-tubulin (α-Tub) or anti-GAPDH antibodies. D. CFSE-prelabelled trophozoites were co-cultured with hVECs (moi 1:3) for 30 min and the number of trophozoites bound per 1,000 hVECs was calculated as shown in the bar graph (mean ± SD). All assays were repeated three times. Significant differences were statistically analyzed by the Student’s t-tests with PP<0.05 (*), and ns, not significant.