Figure 3

HCL2 disintegrates bacterial cell wall, changes colony texture and inhibits intracellular growth. (A) Transmission electron micrographs of mycobacterial cells depicted effects of HCL2 on cell wall integrity and cell shape. (B) Representative photographs exhibiting the difference in colony morphology and colony surface texture between H37Rv and H37Rv/HCL2. (C) Significant reductions were found in mycobacterial counts inside THP-1 in the presence of endogenous and exogenous HCL2 peptide. All experiments were conducted in triplicates and repeated at least thrice. (t = 0) defines the time at the beginning of phagocytosis. All readings were found statistically significant by applying Student’s T-test (*P < 0.05).