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Figure 8. Model of the interactions of P. gingivalis with host cells. Invasive P. gingivalis can interact with both the aortic endothelium (A) and monocytes (B), and can initiate a potent innate immune response. The combination of the endothelium and the monocytes (C) is more responsive to P. gingivalis than either of the individual cell types alone. In all cases, cells infected with wild-type P. gingivalis (WT; left of dashed line) elicit a more potent response than the major fimbriae-deficient P. gingivalis (FimA-; right of dashed line). Size of arrow indicates relative magnitude of the host response.
