Although not detectable intracellularly, at 2 h VacA-(∆6-27) induced 6.6-fold the TOM22 signal (Fig. 5D) with essentially no effect on TIM23 (Fig. 5E) and mitochondrial mass (Fig. 5C), corroborating the effect of VacA in H. pylori 26695-infected cells during the 2 first hours of infection, which was also not detected intracellularly (see above Fig. 3D,F). This evidence concerns the gene TOMM22 and infection.