Figure 6.

SprC attenuates the virulence and spread of a S. aureus clinical isolate on infected mice. (A) Survival probability plots (Kaplan-Meier) of mice infected either with S aureus Newman (blue, 5.10⁷ cfu per mouse) or isogenic S. aureus Newman-ΔsprC (red; 5.10⁷ cfu); 0.05 < P-value < 0.1. Groups of 10 ‘six to eight-weeks old’ Swiss mice were inoculated intravenously with 5.10⁹ bacteria and monitored daily for 2 weeks. The Mantel-Haenszel test P-value is between 0.01 and 0.05. The results are representative of three independent experiments representing 30 mice per strain. (B) Survival probability plots (Kaplan-Meier) of mice infected either with S. aureus Newman-ΔsprCpCN38 (blue; 5.10⁷ cfu) or S. aureus Newman-ΔsprCpCN38ΩsprC (red, 5.10⁷ cfu per mouse); The Mantel-Haenszel test P-value is lower than 0.01. Results are representative of three independent experiments representing 30 mice per strain. (C) Recovery of S. aureus from the kidneys of infected mice four days after bacterial challenge. Groups of 5 mice were inoculated intravenously with the indicated strains. Each individual is indicated by a circle symbol, with mean bacterial titers as red lines. The Mann-Whitney test P-value is between 0.01 and 0.05. The red line represents the mean value of 5 mice. Bottom: Macroscopic aspects of the recovered kidneys after intravenous infection with the respective S. aureus strains.