Fig 6. anti-epitope serum-mediated phagocytosis of S. aureus Newman.

PBS-washed Newman (2×10⁵ CFU) was incubated with 50 μl of the serum for 30 min. The negative control was incubated with the negative serum and the blank control comprised only phagocytes and bacteria. Differences in the internalization rates between anti-epitope peptide serum group and anti-negative serum group was statistically significant. The data represent the means ± SEM (n = 3). Statistical significance was measured using a Student’s t-test (**, p < 0.01).