FIG 5.

Impact of the residual microbiota on host immune responses during CDI. (A) Schematic of the experimental design to determine the impact of residual microbiota composition on the outcome of C. difficile infection. Mice were inoculated with each antibiotic-resistant isolate followed by 200 spores of C. difficile VPI 10463 and were euthanized 2 days later. (B) The abundance (expressed in CFU per gram) of the antibiotic-resistant strain and C. difficile in cecal contents was determined by selective plating. (C) Fold induction of immune cytokines in colonic tissue as determined by quantitative RT-PCR. Asterisks indicate significant differences (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001; ****, P < 0.0001) from results for control mice. Data shown are means ± SEM.