Fig 7.

Cytokine gene expression in murine livers in response to infection with Fpt mutant strains is altered compared to that in response to infection with LVS. Groups of 3 BALB/c mice were infected with either PBS (mock infected), 500 CFU of LVS, 400 CFU of the LVS ΔfptB strain, 300 CFU of the LVS ΔfptE strain, or 700 CFU of the LVS ΔfptG strain. (A) Livers were harvested and homogenized at 24, 48, and 72 h after infection. (B) Difference in IFN-γ and iNOS expression levels in LVS ΔfptB mutant-infected mice (1.5 × 10³ CFU) with high bacterial burdens versus those with low bacterial burdens at day 7. High bacterial burden versus low bacterial burden refers to Fig. 5B, where two mice had bacterial burdens similar to those for LVS infection (approximately 10⁸ CFU/gram tissue) and are considered “high” and two mice had bacterial burdens similar to those for infection with the other two mutants (approximately 10³ CFU/gram tissue) and are considered low. Relative cytokine gene expression levels were measured by using quantitative RT-PCR. *, P < 0.05 by Dunnett's two-sided multiple-comparison test. The statistical significance represented is between a given Fpt mutant strain and LVS at the indicated time point.