FIG 2.

Quantification (mean ± SD; n = 5) of viable S. aureus ATCC 15981 and V329 bacteria (CFU) found on infected sealed catheters precolonized with the correspondent S. aureus strain and implanted subcutaneously in mice. Catheters infected with strain ATCC 15981 (close squares) were naturally expelled between days 7 and 14 postimplantation (PI). At each interval, 1 of 5 catheters successfully precolonized in vitro with strain V329 became uninfected after subcutaneous implantation in vivo, and the corresponding data have not been included in the figure. Statistical comparisons by Fisher's LSD test showed that P values of <0.05 (*) for comparisons between the two bacterial strains were detected at days 1, 7, and 14.