Adhesion of H. pylori to HDPFs

The adhesion property of H. pylori strains to HDPFs was examined using a method described previously [16 (link)], with some modifications. Approximately 1 × 10⁵ HDPFs were seeded in the tissue culture plates (Costar®, Corning Inc., Corning, NY, USA). The wells were washed with PBS and antibiotic-free medium was added, followed by the infection of 1 × 10⁶ c.f.u. H. pylori in antibiotic-free medium. The medium was removed after 1.5 h of anaerobic incubation and infected cells were washed with PBS, and then added the sterile distilled water for disruption of the cells. Next, dilutions of cell lysates were plated onto blood agar plates and incubated at 37 °C for 3 days under microaerophilic conditions. The adhesion rates were calculated by the ratio of resuspended to infected cells. Data are shown as the mean ± standard deviation of triplicate experiments.