Table 3

Enhanced cell surface Lewis antigen expression is cholesterol-specific

fold increase compared to parallel cholesterol-free culture

Lewis X

Lewis Y

mean ± SEM (n)

P value

mean ± SEM (n)

P value

cholesterol

2.96 ± 0.22 (5)

.0008

2.48 ± 0.10 (4)

.0007

β- sitosterol

1.80 ± 0.47 (4)

0.19

1.19 ± 0.13 (3)

0.28

taurocholate

0.64 ± 0.16 (4)

0.12

0.84 ± 0.20 (3)

0.52

Lewis antigens were quantitated in replicate whole-cell ELISA analyses of pairwise cultures of H. pylori G27 grown in the presence or absence of 130 μM cholesterol, or an equal concentration of β-sitosterol or sodium taurocholate. The antigen load was 300 ng cellular protein per well. Ratios for plus:minus cholesterol were calculated from duplicate net absorbance readings in each assay, and ratios determined in three to five independent ELISA runs were then averaged. P values were calculated in two-tailed Student t-tests for the null hypothesis that the ratio equals 1.

Hildebrandt and McGee BMC Microbiology 2009 9:258   doi:10.1186/1471-2180-9-258