Figure 6.

Mice lacking functional TLR4 are more susceptible to pneumococcal nasopharyngeal colonization. Emitted photons by luciferase-tagged S. pneumoniae in the nasopharynx from anesthetized C3H/HeJ (Upper) and C3H/HeOuJ (Lower) mice were detected by a charge-coupled camera after intranasal inoculation with 7 × 10⁷ cfu of a type-3 pneumococcus (strain A66.1 Xen 10). Results are from 24 h after inoculation and represent the course of colonization in these animals. The animals with bioluminescence at 24 h (five C3H/HeJ and one C3H/HeOuJ mice in these pictures) subsequently developed bacteremia and died.