Figure 3: Gardnerella vaginalis induces apoptosis (A) and exfoliation (B) of the mouse bladder epithelium following two transurethral exposures, using our previously reported model [95].
Our blinded observation showed that ~75% of animals exposed to Gardnerella (compared to only ~25% of controls) exhibited staining for cleaved caspase-3, a marker of apoptotic cell death, in the outermost epithelium (A, left). Membranous protrusions were another feature we observed by scanning electron microscopy that is consistent with apoptosis (A, right). We also observed that G. vaginalis triggers exfoliation of superficial umbrella cells, revealing smaller underlying cells of the transitional epithelium (B). Scale bars = 20 μm.