Fig 4.
Clinical course of A2BAR knockout (KO) and littermate C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) mice infected with C. difficile VPI 10463. n = 7 to 9 in the control group, and n = 10/group in the infected groups. (A) Survival curve (P = 0.067 for WT infected versus KO infected, by Mantel-Cox test). (B) Percentage of weight change from day of inoculation (day 0). For statistical analyses, the latest weights of dead mice were carried through the end of observation (*, P < 0.05 on days 4 to 7 for WT infected versus KO infected, by two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni's correction). (C) Diarrhea scores. For statistical analyses, the latest scores of dead mice were carried through the end of observation. *, P < 0.01 for WT infected versus KO infected on days 3 to 5 by two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni's correction). (D) C. difficile toxin positivity in cecal contents by ELISA (P < 0.0001 by ANOVA with Bonferroni's multiple comparison test). (E) Clostridial shedding, detected by PCR of the C. difficile TcdB gene (tcdB) in available fecal specimens from infected KO and WT mice. The lower the cycle threshold value, the higher the degree of clostridial shedding. Uninfected controls did not have detectable tcdB. Histopathology is presented in Fig. 5.