L. vaginalis Elicits hBD2 Gene Induction from Reproductive Epithelia.

Confluent monolayers of epithelial cells were inoculated with bacteria and coincubated for up to 24 hr, then analyzed by RTqPCR for hBD2 and hBD3 expression. Transcript expression was normalized to mock-inoculated cells, and is shown as the average of three or four independent experiments. Average MOI are: 6.9 for L. acidophilus, 7.3 for L. crispatus, 9.7 for L. gasseri, 7.3 for L. jensenii, 7.3 for L. johnsonii, 3.4 for L. vaginalis, 3.7 for A. vaginae, 3.1 for G. vaginalis, 3.6 for M. curtisii, and 3.9 for P. bivia. Asterisks indicate a significant (p<0.05) increase in expression over mock-treated cells for at least one timepoint.