Table 1.

Numbers of CFU/cornea recovered from multi-bacterial/fungal infections after 24 h

A
	RABBIT		HUMAN
S. aureus - P. aeruginosa	S. aureus	P. aeruginosa	S. aureus	P. aeruginosa
	1.88 ± 0.6 × 106	3.09 ± 0.9 × 107	5.25 ± 1.6 × 105	2.43 ± 3.2 × 108
C. albicans - P. aeruginosa	C. albicans	P. aeruginosa	C. albicans	P. aeruginosa
	4.20 ± 1.6 × 106	2.12 ± 0.9 × 108	5.15 ± 6.6 × 105	1.00 ± 1.2 × 108
B
	RABBIT		HUMAN
S. aureus - P. aeruginosa	S. aureus	P. aeruginosa	S. aureus	P. aeruginosa
	9.26 ± 4.2 × 106	5.83 ± 2.4 × 108	2.50 ± 5.7 × 104	3.72 ± 1.08 × 108
C. albicans - P. aeruginosa	C. albicans	P. aeruginosa	C. albicans	P. aeruginosa
	4.25 ± 1.1 × 106	6.84 ± 0.6 × 108	4.05 ± 9.6 × 105	7.65 ± 1.0 × 108

Two multi-pathogen infections were investigated. These were a mixed S. aureus/P. aeruginosa and a mixed C. albicans/P. aeruginosa infection. A: EX vivo rabbit and human corneas were wounded with a scalpel and exposed to a mixture of 10⁸ of both organisms for 24 h B: Ex vivo rabbit and human corneas were intrastromally injected with 10⁸ cells of the first organism at 3–5 distinct locations, and then 10⁸ cells of the second organism were similarly injected at different sites. The corneas were incubated for 24 h, washed, homogenised, serially diluted and plated onto agar plates, and the CFU/cornea calculated. Data is expressed in CFU/cornea ± SEM of at least three independent experiments performed in triplicate