FIG 5.
Vancomycin treatment reduced the bacterial load, peripheral inflammation, and caspase 3 activity in the brain. Mice i.p. injected with 3.5 × 107 CFU of S. epidermidis (SE) at PND4 were administered saline (n = 9), vancomycin (Van) (n = 11), or vancomycin with pentoxifylline (Van/PTX) (n = 9). Control mice were injected with saline only (n = 6). The mice were sacrificed for spleen CFU enumeration and cytokine analysis at 14 h postinfection. (A) Bacterial-cell counts in the spleen. The solid lines depict medians; the dotted line represents the detection threshold. (B) Caspase 3 activity analysis by cleavage of fluorometric substrates. The data are expressed as means plus SD. (C) Multiplex cytometric bead array analysis of cytokines in the serum and the brain. The data are expressed as means plus SD. The data were pooled from 3 independent experiments. Statistical analysis employed the Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple-comparison post hoc test (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001).