R. montanensis infection enhanced human cerebral microvascular endothelial cell permeability.

Endothelial cells were seeded on type I rat-tail collagen-coated polycarbonate transwell filters and infected with R. montanensis at an MOI of 10 in triplicate, or mock infected. After 24, 48, and 72 hr, FITC-dextran was added to the upper chamber medium, and the presence of FITC dextran in the lower chamber was quantified after 3 hr. The results are expressed as the fold-increase in monolayer permeability over basal permeability levels (* p<0.05).