Fig 6. ASC is essential for NLRC4-mediated restriction of L. pneumophila replication independently of caspase-1/11 in vivo.
C57BL/6 (open circles), Nlrc4-/- (closed squares), Casp1/11-/- (closed triangles) and Asc/Casp1/11-/- (open triangles) mice were infected with motility-deficient L. pneumophila mutants expressing flagellin (fliI-, A, D), with flagellin-deficient L. pneumophila (flaA-, D), with L. gratiana (B) or with L. micdadei (C) at a dose of 105 bacteria/mice. The mice were euthanized at 4, 48 or 72 hours after infection. Dilutions of the lung homogenates were added to charcoal-yeast extract agar plates for colony-forming unit determination. Each dot represents a single animal, and the horizontal lines represent the averages. *, P<0.05. #, indicates P<0.05 compared with C57BL/6, Mann Whitney test. Data are presented for one representative experiment of five (A), one (B-C) and two (D) experiments performed with similar results.