Fig. 3

Protonated LA increases the barrier integrity of ectocervical epithelial cells. Ectocervical cells (Ect1) seeded into transwells were apically treated for 1 h with media alone (untreated, UT) or media containing 0.3% L- or D-lactic acid (LA) at either low (pH 3.9) or neutral (pH 7) pH, low pH media alone (HCl, pH 3.9), or 2 mM EDTA. Epithelial barrier integrity was assessed by transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) measured at baseline (T0) and 24 h after treatment (T24) expressed as the TEER ratio (T24/T0). Graph shows median and interquartile range for each condition from 4 independent experiments. *p < 0.05 compared to untreated control, as determined by Mann-Whitney U-test