FIG. 2.

DEX protection of mice from lethal infection with clinical and laboratory bacterial isolates. The bacterial strains represented are identical to those described in the legend to Fig. 1. Animals were injected i.p. with graded doses of each bacterial strain with d-gal with or without 100 μg of DEX, and the resulting mortality was evaluated over 48 h. Each datum point represents experiments performed with at least 48 mice. The data show the impact that pretreatment with 100 μg of DEX has on the LD₅₀ of each bacterial isolate tested. Symbols: ⋄, E. faecalis; •, gram-negative bacteria; ○, gram-positive bacteria other than E. faecalis.