Figure 4.

Effect of a ccpA deletion on infectivity of S. aureus in NOD mice in a footpad swelling model. Cells of S. aureus strain Newman (black symbols) and its ΔccpA derivative MST14 (white symbols) were injected subcutaneously into the footpads of age-matched diabetic and non-diabetic NOD mice (n = 8 per group), respectively, and swelling of the footpads were measured on a daily basis in reference to the uninfected footpads. (A) Time course of footpad swelling of S. aureus-infected mice. Data shown represent the means ± SEM. (B) Bacterial loads of S. aureus strain Newman (black symbols) and MST14 (white symbols) in infected feet 11 days p.i. Each symbol represents an individual animal, and horizontal bars indicate the median of all observations. ^*P < 0.05; ^**P < 0.01 (Mann–Whitney U-test).