Materials

Cibacron Blue F3G-A (CB) was purchased from Polysciences, Inc. (Warrington, PA, USA). The carrier-free recombinant CKs from BioLegend (San Diego, CA, USA) were a mouse CCL3 (MIP-1α), and a human CXCL8 (IL-8). Cell culture media and reagents were purchased from Mediatech, Inc. (Manassas, VA, USA). The CyQUANT^® NF Cell Proliferation Assay Kit was from ThermoFisher Scientific (Waltham, MA, USA). Endotoxin-free water was from Life Technologies (Fredrick, MD, USA). B. anthracis Sterne strain 34F2 was from Colorado Serum Co. α-B. anthracis serum recognizing the vegetative bacterium was raised in rabbits after a subcutaneous spore challenge. It was shown by us to recognize a vegetative form of the bacterium.