Fig. 7.

S. aureus systemic infection. Mice were intraperitoneally inoculated with wild-type S. aureus, the SpA^- mutant or PBS (control). IL-1β (a), TNF-α (b) and IL-6 (c) levels in serum were quantified by ELISA. Each dot represents an individual mouse and horizontal lines show the median value in each group. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01, nonparametric Mann-Whitney test. The rate of bacteremia (d) and bacterial counts in blood from mice with positive culture (e) were determined at 2 and 4 h postinoculation. d Bars represent the percentage of bacteremia for each group. e Each box represents an individual group of mice and horizontal lines show the median value for each group. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001, nonparametric Mann-Whitney test and Fisher's exact test.