Figure 5. Effect of CCR5 on the survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

C57BL/6 mice were transfected with CCR5 shRNA or control shRNA as described in materials and methods section prior to Mycobacterium infection. After 28 days of infection, the lungs and spleens were lysed. The respective lysates were serially diluted and plated on Middle brook 7 H10 with Oleic acid-ADC in triplicate. Data are represented as log₁₀CFU/organ as mean ± SD. In a separate set, the transfected and infected mice were sacrificed and then the CCR5 expression in infected macrophages were analysed by semi quantitative RT-PCR (C) to validate the specific activity of shRNA mediated knockdown. Data represented here are from one of three independent experiments, all of which yielded similar results.