Figure 5.

Deficiency of DNASE1 and DNASE1L3 promotes bacterial biofilm formation in the kidney. WT or D1^−/−D1L3^−/− DKO mice were infected i.v. with 1 × 10⁷ CFU of S. aureus, and their kidneys were examined by immunohistochemistry 72 h later. (A–D) Shown are serial sections of WT (A and B) and DKO (C and D) kidneys stained with DAPI and antibodies to S. aureus (A and C) or 5-mC (B and D). Each panel includes low-magnification images of the entire kidney (scale bar, 1 mm) and magnified images of areas in white boxes (scale bars, 50 μm). Representative of eight mice per genotype. (E) Quantification of DAPI-positive 5-mC–negative biofilm area in kidney sections. Symbols represent individual mice; bars represent the median. (F) S. aureus biofilms or cultured mammalian 293T cells were stained with DAPI and antibodies to 5-mC (scale bar, 10 μm). Representative of two experiments. Statistical significance was determined by Mann–Whitney test; two-tailed P value < 0.001 (***).