FIG 6.

Perforin knockout mice have more severe disease following NMI infection than wild-type mice. WT and perforin knockout mice were infected i.p. with 5 × 10⁷ NMI organisms, and disease severity was assessed 14 dpi. (A) Relative body weight was determined throughout infection to monitor disease severity. (B) Splenomegaly was determined as a ratio of spleen weight to body weight. (C) Bacterial burden in the spleen was determined by real-time PCR and reported as log₁₀ C. burnetii com1 gene copy numbers. These data indicate that Prf1 KO mice had more severe splenomegaly than WT mice following NMI infection. The data presented for each group are the average with standard deviation for four mice. Results were analyzed by t test (B and C) or two-way ANOVA with Sidak's multiple-comparison test (A) for statistical significance. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01.