Fig. 5

Morphological changes of GES-1 cells as observed by inverted microscopy after incubation with a high final concentration (65 μg/mL) of VacA recombinant protein for 24 h. Cellular morphological changes were visualized before incubation (0 h) and 6, 12 and 24 h after incubation by invert microscopy (Magnification × 100). After 24 h stimulation of VacA recombinant protein (as indicated by the arrow), significant cell morphological changes evident of apoptosis including early nuclear immobilization and clustering in GES-1 cells were observed. A large number of nuclei were retracted and chromatin in the nucleus converged to the edge