Fig. 4

Inhibition of binding to fibronectin in the presence or absence of sera or competition with purified flagellin. a Naïve (•), anti-H11 (◆) or anti-GroEL () rabbit sera were serially diluted and preincubated with BA2103 and then incubated in the presence of fibronectin. b Different concentrations of purified flagellin were incubated in ELISA microplates previously coated with cellular fibronectin, followed by incubation with BA2103. Adhered bacteria were recovered with 0.05 % triton-X100 in PBS and then plated on LB agar in serial dilutions and then the colony-forming units were counted. Differences were statistically significant compared to the binding of BA2103 to fibronectin, in presence of naïve rabbit or anti-H11 serum (p = 0.0008) or anti-GroEL (p = 0.0008). Also significant differences were observed in presence purified flagellin (from p = 0.0010 to 0.0005)