FIG 5 .

Cytokine induction in in vivo N. meningitidis infection of WT and C5ar1^−/− mice and in whole-blood model. (A and B) Levels of IL-6 and CXCL-1 in plasma and peritoneal lavage fluid (PL), respectively, from n = 8 mice per genotype after intraperitoneal administration of 5 × 10⁸ CFU of heat-inactivated N. meningitidis MC58. Plotted are means ± SEM. ns, not significant; *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01 (in unpaired, two-tailed Student’s t test). (C) Bacterial counts over time in ex vivo infection of lepirudin-treated mouse whole blood with 10⁶ CFU/ml N. meningitidis. Plotted are means ± SEM of results from n = 3 independent experiments. (D) CXCL-1 concentrations (means ± SEM) in plasma of whole-blood infection from the experiment described for panel C. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01 (in unpaired, two-tailed Student’s t test).