Figure 7. Passive protection experiments.

Mice were inoculated with OpaA or OpaB variants that were preincubated with antibodies against linear or cyclic Opa SV or HV₂-loop sequences. (A) OpaA variants with Ab_{SV linear}, Ab_{HV2A linear}, or Ab_{HV2BD linear}. There was no difference in the number of gonococci recovered from mice in the Ab_{SV linear} and Ab_{HV2A linear} test groups compared to the Ab_{HV2B linear} control group on days 1 or 2 post-inoculation (p≤0.14). (B) OpaB variants with Ab_{HV2BD cyclic}, Ab_{SV cyclic} or NMS. There was no difference in the number of gonococci recovered from mice treated with Ab_{SV cyclic} compared to the control (NMS) group (p≤0.20) on days 1 or 2 post-inoculation. (C) OpaB variants with Ab_{HV2BD linear} and Ab_{HV2A linear}. Shown are combined data from three independent experiments that showed no difference in the number of bacteria recovered from each group on days 1 and 2 post-inoculation at the level of p = 0.07 and p = 0.08, respectively (n = 7–15 mice/group in each experiment; total number = 35 mice/group). Symbols indicate a single animal and horizontal bars indicate the group mean with the SEM shown. Statistical differences were analyzed by a two-tailed Student's t test.