FIG. 3.

In vivo bactericidal activity of K₄-S4(1-16). Neutropenic mice infected i.p. with P. aeruginosa were treated i.p. with PBS alone or with PBS containing the specified peptide doses. Animals (six mice/group) were sacrificed at 0, 1, and 5 h after bacterial infection, and peritoneal fluids were removed as described in Materials and Methods. Viable bacterial counts were determined (in triplicate) by plating diluted peritoneal fluids on Mueller-Hinton agar plates. The results shown correspond to the means ± standard deviations.