Fig 2. Intranasal and aerosol administration of B. pertussis (UT25Sm1) lead to dose-dependent colonization of the respiratory tract in mice.

Mice were challenged utilizing an aerosol chamber (20 mL total) with doses of B. pertussis from 10⁹ CFU/mL to 10⁶ CFU/mL, or by intranasal administration (20 μL total) of B. pertussis with doses from 10⁷ CFU to 10² CFU. Bacterial burden was quantified one-hour post-challenge in the A) nasal lavage fluid, B) trachea, and C) lung. Error bars are mean ± SEM (n = 5 per group). A simple linear regression was performed on Y = Log(Y) transformed CFU data to compare the dose administered by D) aerosol challenge E) to the number of bacteria recovered from the lung. High and low doses for each challenge route are highlighted with a gray box. This figure was created with BioRender.com and is published under a CC BY license, with permission from Biorender, original copyright 2023.