Fig. 4: Antibacterial mechanism governing cell death. | Communications Biology

Fig. 4: Antibacterial mechanism governing cell death.

From: Function-adaptive clustered nanoparticles reverse Streptococcus mutans dental biofilm and maintain microbiota balance

Fig. 4

SEM images of planktonic S. mutans treated with a water and b CHX PR4+ polymer NPs with noticeable damage to the membrane and loss of cell morphology; arrows indicate the NPs attached to the bacterial membrane; TEM images of c control, water-treated, and d CHX PR4+ polymer NP-treated S. mutans. The arrow indicates the damaged membrane, and the arrow in the inset figure indicates the NPs on the bacterial outer membrane; e downstream damage to S. mutans as a result of treatment with NPs as investigated with a DNA gel electrophoresis assay, 1: ladder, 2: CHX, and 3: CHX PR4+ polymer NP treatment; f confocal images from a TUNEL assay of CHX PR4+ polymer NP treatment, scale bar 50 μm. All the scale bars are 50 µm. Blue is the nuclear stain, and red indicates the TUNEL-positive cells. g The TUNEL assay red channel intensity as measured by plate reader. Ordinary one-way ANOVA w.r.t. water, p values < 0.1 and 0.0001 are indicated by * and ****, respectively. Error bar represents mean ± SD.

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