i.) in all experiments], complete medium containing 0.5 μg mL−1 cycloheximide (Sigma-Aldrich),

10 μM INP0010 was added to the cells; in controls, DMSO (Sigma-Aldrich) was used instead of INP0010. Successful infection was confirmed by immunofluorescence staining of C. pneumoniae-infected HEp-2 cells seeded on glass cover slips (12 mm Ø). At indicated time points, the infected cells were fixed in a shell vial in ice-cold methanol for 15 min and subsequently stained using a fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated selleck inhibitor monoclonal antibody specific for Chlamydia lipopolysaccharide (Pathfinder, Bio-Rad Laboratories) according to the manufacturer’s instructions and visualized by immunofluorescence confocal microscopy. In RNA half-life experiments, the infected cells were treated with 10 μg mL−1 rifampicin at 14 h p.i. and were harvested 1 and 2 h after addition of antibiotic. The control sample (designated 0 h) was collected before the addition of the antibiotic before RNA and DNA isolation. During the isolation procedure, the culture medium was removed, and the cells were washed twice with ice-cold phosphate buffered saline and then lysed using the lysis buffer from an Agencourt RNAdvance cell kit (Beckman-Coulter) as described by the manufacturer. RNA isolation was performed using the indicated kit, also according to the instructions of the manufacturer. RNA samples were purified

by ethanol precipitation. The concentrations and quality of all samples were quantified using a Nanodrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer (A260 nm/280 nm and A260 nm/230 nm) and diluted with diethylpyrocarbonate-treated RG7420 concentration DNA Damage inhibitor water to appropriate concentrations. All RNA samples were stored at −80 °C till use. DNA samples were collected at the same time points as RNA, and the DNeasy tissue protocol was applied to isolate total DNA from cultured cells (Qiagen). DNA samples were further purified by ethanol precipitation. The

amount and purity of DNA samples were quantified as described above. All DNA samples were stored at −20 °C until use. Each experiment was repeated at least two times. RNA was isolated as described above. Briefly, 35 μg of total RNA was separated on a 1.5% formaldehyde : agarose gel. The RNA was transferred to a Hybond-N membrane (Amersham) overnight, and subsequently cross-linked.32P-labeled probes corresponding to the coding sequences of groEL_1 and incB were generated using a Megaprime DNA labeling system (Amersham) as stipulated by the manufacturer (Sheehan et al., 1995). Chlamydia pneumoniae transcripts were monitored by qRT-PCR (iCycler iQ® Real-Time PCR Detection System; Bio-Rad Laboratories), using an iScript one-step RT-PCR kit with SYBR Green (Bio-Rad Laboratories). The oligonucleotide primers used (Table 1) were designed using beacon designer software (v 6.0; Premier Biosoft International, Palo Alto, CA). Before use, each primer set was run through an annealing-gradient step to achieve optimal amplification conditions.