Fig 7.

Inflammatory response induced during systemic S. aureus infection. Groups of mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with wild-type S. aureus (filled circles) or a protein A-deficient mutant (spa-deficient mutant) (shaded circles). Open circles indicate values for mice inoculated with PBS as a control. Twenty-four hours later, the levels of TNF-α (A), IL-1β (B), and IL-6 (C) in serum were quantified by ELISA, and the percentage of neutrophils in the peritoneum was determined by flow cytometry (D). Each symbol represents an individual mouse, and horizontal lines show the median value for each group. Asterisks indicate significant differences (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001) by the Mann-Whitney test for nonparametric data.