FIG 3 .

Deletion of sec in S. aureus strain MW2 protects rabbits against development of acute renal infarction and abscess formation and partially against lung necrosis and hemorrhage in the infective endocarditis and sepsis model. (A) Representative images of kidneys harvested from infected rabbits demonstrating the severity of kidney injury by SEC-producing S. aureus strains. (B) Quantification of renal injury and abscess formation plotted as the percentage of the kidney surface area with visible kidney injury in rabbits infected intravenously with 2 × 10⁷ to 3 × 10⁷ CFU of wild-type MW2, the MW2Δsec strain, the MW2Δsec strain with psec (ectopic expression), or the MW2Δselx strain after mechanical damage of the aortic valves. *, P = 0.025, nonparametric (one-way ANOVA) Kruskal-Wallis test. Horizontal lines and error bars represent mean values ± SEM. P values of ≤0.05 are considered statistically significant. (C) Representative images of lungs harvested from infected rabbits. Gross examination shows an improvement in the pathology of the lungs in rabbits infected with the sec deletion strain.