FIG 5.

Effect of C5 deficiency on hydrosalpinx development and live organism shedding from the lower genital tract following intrauterine infection with C. muridarum. (A) Mice without (C5^+/+; n = 14) (a) or with (C5^−/−; n = 15) (b) deficiency in complement factor 5 were infected intrauterinally with C. muridarum. Sixty days after infection, mouse genital tracts were harvested for visually identifying (arrow) and scoring (white numbers) hydrosalpinges, as described in Materials and Methods, and analyzed as described in the legend to Fig. 1. *, P < 0.05 (Fisher's exact test for comparing incidence rates and Wilcoxon rank sum test for severity scores). Note that C5^−/− mice developed significantly less hydrosalpinx in terms of both the incidence rate and the severity score. (B) Mice were also monitored for live organism shedding from the lower genital tract during the infection course prior to sacrifice. The numbers of live organisms recovered from swabs (a) and of mice remaining positive for shedding live organisms (b) from the C5^+/+ and C5^−/− groups are plotted along the y axis. The error bars indicate standard deviations.