Figure 4.

Chronic Liver Disease Is Specific to N. aromaticivorans

(A) Representative liver sections (10× magnification) of NOD 1101 mice infected with N. aromaticivorans (left panel), E. coli (middle panel), and Salmonella (right panel) 10 months earlier. Note in the left panel the severe portal infiltration with bile duct damage (inset 1, 100×) and moderate fibrosis (inset 2, 100×) after N. aromaticivorans infection, contrasting with the integrity of livers infected with E. coli or Salmonella.

(B) Histopathological scores of individual livers at 6 weeks and 6 months postinfection. Statistical significance was calculated using a Mann-Whitney test based on exact p value computations to account for ties. Results are representative of two independent experiments. Mice were infected with 5 × 10⁷N. aromaticivorans (filled black squares), 5 × 10⁷E. coli (filled gray squares), and 5 × 10⁴Salmonella (filled gray circles) cfus, and histopathological scores were analyzed at the indicated time points compared to uninfected control mice (empty black squares).