Bacterial Strain Preparation and Cell Culture

The bacterial strains E. coli ATCC 25922, Shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC) O91 EC20010076, Mh 276, Mh 13, Mh 136, Mh 535, Mh 587, and Mh 330 were used in the study (Table 2 [23 (link),24 (link),38 (link)]). Glycerol stocks of isolates were streaked onto tryptic soy agar (TSA; EMD Millipore Corporation, Billerica, MA, USA) supplemented with 5% defibrinated sheep blood (QUAD FIVE, Ryegate, MT, USA) and incubated at 37 °C in the presence of 5% CO₂ for 20–24 h. A single colony was inoculated into 10 mL Mueller Hinton broth (MHB; Oxoid, Basingstoke, Hants, UK) and incubated at 37 °C with shaking at 180 rpm for 20–22 h. Bovine turbinate cells (BTs) were grown on Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Media (DMEM) (BioWhittaker, Walkersville, MD, USA) with phenol red, 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco by Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY, USA), and 1% Antibiotic-Antimycotic (Gibco, Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY, USA) at 37 °C with 5% CO₂.