, Tokyo Japan) (Laemmli, 1970). The purified flavodoxin (FldA) protein (Shimomura et al., 2007) was also electrophoresed as an authentic sample. After the SDS-PAGE, the proteins in the gel were stained with Coomassie brilliant blue. After FC (50 mg; Wako Pure Chemical Industries Ltd.) was dissolved in chloroform (5 mL), beads

(Iatrobeads 6RS-8060, 1 g; Mitsubishi Kagaku Iatron Inc., Tokyo, Japan) were added to the FC–chloroform solution and gently stirred for 5 min at room temperature. Next, the chloroform was completely vaporized at 70 °C Epigenetic inhibitor datasheet with a rotary evaporator (Buchi Rotavapor R 114: Shibata Scientific Technology Ltd., Saitama, Japan) and the FC was tightly fixed to the beads by heating for 15 min at 150 °C. The FC beads were then cooled, suspended in distilled water (10 mL), and stored at 4 °C until use in the experiments. Control beads without FC fixation (100 mg mL−1) were also prepared. The only difference between the procedures to prepare the FC beads and FC-free beads was MAPK inhibitor the omission of the FC dissolution in chloroform in the procedure to prepare the latter. Helicobacter pylori membrane lipids were purified using the Folch method (Folch et al., 1957). After the cell pellets were suspended and sonicated in a chloroform–methanol solvent (2 : 1), the supernatant

(800 μL) was recovered via centrifugation (10 000 g, 5 min), treated with a 0.9% KCl solution (160 μL), stirred vigorously, and centrifuged for 5 min at 10 000 g to separate the water phase from the chloroform phase. The solvent of the recovered chloroform phase was vaporized using a centrifugal concentrator (Tomy Seiko Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) to obtain the purified membrane lipids. The membrane lipids were analyzed by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) using a 60% sulfuric acid solution. The FC absorbed into the H. pylori cells was quantified by the following method.

After the H. pylori cell suspension (1 mL) was cultured for 24 h in a simple-PPLO broth (30 mL) containing progesterone (5 or 10 μM) with continuous shaking under microaerobic conditions in the dark, cell pellets precultured with the progesterone were recovered via centrifugation (8600 g, 5 min) from the cultures, resuspended in a fresh simple-PPLO broth (30 mL) containing FC beads (FC Amino acid concentration: 250 μM), and incubated for 4 h with continuous shaking under microaerobic conditions. After the incubation, the FC beads were removed via centrifugation (10 g, 1 min) to obtained a supernatant (28 mL) containing the H. pylori cells. Cell pellets were recovered via centrifugation (8600 g, 5 min) and purified into membrane lipids. The purified membrane lipids were dissolved in acetic acid (600 μL), mixed with a ferrous chloride reagent [phosphoric acid–sulfuric acid (2 : 25) solution containing 0.2% FeCl2·6H2O: 400 μL], stirred vigorously, and incubated for 15 min at room temperature.