Fig. 5. S. pyogenes subvert recruitment of neutrophils to aid survival within lymph nodes.

a, b Recovery of bacteria (a) and neutrophil counts (CD45⁺, CD11b⁺, Ly6G⁺, live singlets) relative to bacterial load (b), 3 h after hindlimb intramuscular infection of FVB/n mice with 10⁸ CFU of SpyCEP-deficient S. pyogenes (grey circles, H1567) or an isogenic SpyCEP⁺ strain (red triangles, H1565). Symbols represent individual mice and black lines indicate geometric means. n = 6 (Leg and Blood) or n = 5 (LNs and Spleen) per group. *p ≤ 0.05; inguinal, p = 0.0180; axillary, p = 0.0440 (a); LN, p = 0.0117; blood, p = 0.0120 b two-tailed Student’s t-test performed on log₁₀-transformed data. c–h Immunofluorescence images of cryosections from a draining inguinal lymph node 3 h (c, d) or 24 h (e–h) after intramuscular infection of FVB/n mice with 10⁸ CFU of S. pyogenes H1565 (green); neutrophils (red), and nuclei (blue). Extracellular and intracellular streptococci indicated by arrows and asterisks, respectively (d). Scale bars represent 200 µm (c, e) and 20 µm (b, f–h). Imaging data are representative of five independent experiments. See also Supplementary Fig. 5 and Supplementary Movie 9. CFU are per ml of blood, per leg, or per organ.