Fig. 3.

Effect of pre-treatment with dexamethasone 21-phosphate (DEX; 200 μg per larva) and subsequent infection with increasing inoculum sizes of K. pneumoniae NCTC9633 (a) or NCTC13438 (c) and E. coli NCTC12241 (b) or NCTC13353 (d) on the survival of G. mellonella larvae after 96 h at 37 °C. Groups treated with dexamethasone 21-phosphate were compared to controls treated with sterile water. Dexamethasone 21-phosphate or water was administered to the larvae 10 min prior to infection with live bacteria. Asterisk indicates a group with significantly reduced survival compared to the control treated with water (p < 0.05, log-rank test with Holm correction for multiple comparisons); n = 30 (pooled from duplicate experiments). ±Standard deviation error bars are shown for each treatment group