Fig. 5.

C. jejuni colonization along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and translocation in obese mice. Mice homozygous for the obese spontaneous mutation (ob/ob, solid circles) and wild-type controls (WT, KS background; open circles) were orally infected with C. jejuni strain ATCC 43431 as described in methods. The pathogen densities in distinct compartments of the GI tract (stomach, duodenum, ileum, and colon; A), or cardiac blood and organs such as mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs), spleen, liver, and abdominal fat (B) were determined by quantification of live C. jejuni in luminal GI samples, blood, and organ homogenates, respectively, taken at day 12 p.i. by cultural analysis (CFU, colony forming units). Numbers of animals harboring C. jejuni out of the total number of analyzed animals are given in parentheses. Medians (black bars) and levels of significance (P-values) determined by Mann–Whitney-U test are indicated. Data shown were pooled from three independent experiments