Fig. 7.

Abscess formation and immune responses to E. coli in TLR4^KO mice. (A) Depletion of Gr1+ cells leads to mortality by 2 dpi. (B) TLR4^KO animals have reduced Gr1+ cell infiltration at 4 hpi in the liver compared to control heterozygous littermates. (C) TLR4^KO animals have reduced serum levels of Cxcl1, Cxcl10, Il-1β, and Tnfα compared to control heterozygous littermates. (D) TLR4^KO mice are resistant to abscess formation but have elevated CFUs relative to B6J controls that lack abscesses (n = 10 to 34, over 4 experiments). (E) BALB/cJ mice have reduced Gr1+ cell infiltration at 4 hpi compared to B6J and B6N. (F) BALB/cJ mice have reduced serum levels of Cxcl1, Cxcl10, Il-1β, and Tnfα compared to B6J and B6N mice, which have similarly reduced Gr1+ cell recruitment and serum cytokines. (G) Similar E. coli hepatic CFU burden 4 hpi in BALB/cJ, B6J, and B6N mice. P values are derived from one-tailed Mann–Whitney U tests (mw) and Fisher exact tests (fe) (D), or one-tailed Welch’s t tests (all other panels). P < 0.05 was used to determine statistical significance.