Fig. 6: Cold atmospheric plasma upregulates protein levels of key components of phagocyte NADPH oxidase NOX2.

a–d RAW264.7 macrophages were inoculated with S. aureus (MOI = 10), exposed to helium (control) or CAP and fixed with PFA at 5 h. p. i. Representative confocal microscopy images. a, b The different colors indicate the following: gp91^phox (red), S. aureus (magenta), LAMP-1 (green), and DAPI (blue). c, d The different colors indicate the following: p-p40^phox (red), LAMP-1 (magenta), BODIPY^TM FL Vancomycin-positive S. aureus (green), and DAPI (blue). Scale bar 10 µm. Zoomed in views of the boxed regions are indicated. e RAW264.7 were infected with S. aureus (MOI of 10), exposed to helium (control) or CAP and collected at 2 and 5 h. p. i. Whole cell lysate extracts were immunoblotted with LAMP-1, gp91^phox, p-p47^phox and p-p40^phox antibodies. GM130 was used as a loading control. f Bar graph showing the fold change in protein levels. Values are means ± s.e.m. of three independent experiments with at least three biological replicates in each condition. Two-tailed paired Student’s t test (control versus treatment). Exact p are reported in Supplementary Data 6. *p < 0.05. WCL whole cell lysate, PFA paraformaldehyde, CAP cold atmospheric plasma.