Nicotine Enhances Interspecies Relationship between Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans

Figure 4

Confocal laser scanning microscopy images of dual-species biofilms. (a) A three-dimensional reconstruction of biofilms for 1 mg/ml nicotine-treated and the control group without nicotine. Reconstruction of the biofilm was performed with IMARIS 7.0.0. Bacterial cells were labeled green (SYTO 9), EPS was labeled red (Alexa Fluor 647), and red and green superimposed appear as yellow. Images were obtained at 60x magnification. (b) The distribution of EPS and bacteria in the reconstructed biofilm. (c) The ratio of EPS/S. mutans; the purple line is 0 mg/ml, and the green line is 1 mg/ml nicotine. (d) Expression of S. mutans EPS associated genes in dual-species biofilms treated with 1 mg/ml nicotine. Asterisks indicate the statistical differences compared with the 0 mg/ml nicotine control. The error bars indicate the standard deviation (SD). .

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