Impact of Helicobacter pylori on the healing process of the gastric barrier

Figure 4 Influence of bacterial antigens on the ability of fibroblasts to proliferate and reduce MTT. A: The proliferative activity of fibroblasts was estimated in cell cultures non-stimulated or stimulated for 24 h with bacterial antigens. After incubation, [³H]-thymidine incorporation into cellular DNA was analyzed. The graph shows the stimulation index (SI), which was calculated by dividing the radioactivity counts (cpm/min) for the cell cultures in the presence of a stimulus by the counts for control cell cultures in RPMI-1640 medium alone. The results are shown as SI ± SD of six independent experiments, performed in triplicates. ^aP = 0.02 vs untreated cells; B: Fibroblasts were treated for 24 h with bacterial antigens. After incubation, the ability of cells to reduce MTT was estimated. The graph shows the percentage of MTT reduction ± SD relative to untreated cells. The data represent the average values of four independent experiments performed in triplicates. The values have been normalized to those of the untreated cells. ^bP = 0.01; ^cP = 0.001; ^dP = 0.00002 vs untreated cells.