Figure 1. Impaired clearance of P. gingivalis from the lungs of infected TLR2-deficient mice.
Wild-type or TLR2−/− mice were infected intratracheally with P. gingivalis (108 CFU; expected inoculum). The actual infecting dose (observed inoculum) was determined in mice sacrificed immediately after intratracheal administration of the organism. The wild-type and TLR2−/− experimental mice were sacrificed 5h (A) or 24h (B) postinfection and their lungs were aseptically removed. Serial 10-fold dilutions of lung homogenates were plated for anaerobic growth and enumeration of recovered CFU. Data are shown for each mouse and horizontal lines indicate the mean value. The asterisk indicates significantly (p < 0.05) lower CFU values compared to those seen in TLR2−/− mice and the observed inoculum. No statistically significant differences were found between TLR2−/− CFU and observed inoculum.