FIG. 2.

Inflammatory response in the upper genital tract of C. trachomatis-infected mice. Seventy-three C3H/HeJ mice were infected intravaginally with 10⁵ IFU of D-EC, D-LC, or SPG buffer (mock infection). At five different times following infection, the genital tracts were excised and placed in 10% formalin, embedded into paraffin, sliced, and H&E stained. Upper genital tract tissues were examined for chronic inflammatory cellular infiltrates and scored accordingly: 0 for none, 1 for minimal, 2 for mild, 3 for moderate, and 4 for severe. Scoring was performed for the uterine horn (A), oviduct (B), and ovaries (C). The numbers of mock-, D-EC-, and D-LC-infected mice scored ranged from three to seven mice per group. Mean pathological scores are plotted, and error bars indicate the standard error of the mean. Tukey-Kramer pairwise statistical tests were performed at each time point. P values of less than 0.05 were considered significant and are indicated for comparisons of the results for D-EC and D-LC. D-EC and D-LC infections resulted in a similar inflammatory cell infiltrate in uterine horns at 14 and 21 days p.i. In contrast, only D-LC-infected mice produced a significant inflammatory response in the uterine horns, oviducts, and ovaries at 42 days p.i.