Fig 1.

DEP exposure increases susceptibility to invasive pneumococcal disease. A, Experimental outline. Female CD1 mice were exposed daily to either PBS or DEPs via the intranasal route. After the third exposure, mice were infected with 10⁵ CFU of S pneumoniae to induce stable nasopharyngeal carriage and daily particulate exposure (or PBS control) was continued for the duration of the experiment. B, Lungs of PBS-exposed (top) and DEP-exposed (bottom) mice at day 7 postinfection. Lung (C), blood (D), and nasopharyngeal (E) CFU counts at 1, 4, 7, and 10 days postinfection are shown. Black circles indicate mice subjected to pneumococcal infection only (P), gray squares indicate pneumococcus-infected mice subjected to daily DEP exposure (P+DEPs). Error bars indicate the SEM; ****P < .0001; **P < .01; *P < .05; n = 7 to 21 per group, per time point.