FIG 1.

Effects of tampon fiber composition and their structure on S. aureus growth and TSST-1 production. S. aureus was incubated in BHI broth in sterile bags in the presence or absence of unaltered tampons or tampons deconstructed by dilacerations for 8 h at 37°C with shaking before quantification of S. aureus and TSST-1. Results shown are means of data from 3 experiments ± standard deviations. Student's t tests were used to compare bacterial CFU and TSST-1 concentrations in the presence of deconstructed tampons to those in the presence of unaltered tampons (*, P < 0.05).