FIG 2.

BS168 decreases stone burden and improves survival in a D. melanogaster model of urolithiasis. (A) Kaplan Meier survival analysis of 5-day old D. melanogaster adults that were supplemented with 2 × 10⁸ CFU of BS168 on day 0, transferred to normal or lithogenic medium on day 1, and followed for 14 days. Error bars represent standard errors (n, ≥100 per group from four biological replicates of 20 to 30 flies). BS168 at ≥10 CFU per fly was cultured on LB agar from pulverized BS168-supplemented D. melanogaster flies until experimental day 5, illustrated as circles colored by treatment group (n, 10 per group from three biological replicates). (B) Larval locomotion was determined on day 4 after larvae were supplemented with 5 × 10⁷ CFU of BS168 on day 0 and transferred to normal or lithogenic medium on day 2 (n, 19 to 24 larvae per group from three biological replicates). CaOx crystals were imaged in dissected Malpighian tubules (MT) from D. melanogaster adults on day 7 (C [I to IV]) and quantitated with ImageJ particle analysis (D) (n, 21 to 29 adults per group from three biological replicates). Birefringent fecal excreta from coverslips in adult vials on day 14 were imaged (C [V]), and the fraction that contained birefringent crystals was quantitated (E) (n, 16 to 20 coverslips per group from three biological replicates). The scale bar in panel C is relevant for panels I to IV. All box plots illustrate the median, quartiles, minimum, and maximum. **, P < 0.01; ****, P < 0.0001; ns, not significant.