Fig 8. Immunization with TP075125-237 does not attenuate lesion development or prevent dissemination of spirochetes.
(A) Cutaneous lesions for TP075125-237- and sham-immunized rabbits at sacrifice, 23 days post-challenge. (B) Average lesion circumference (mm) and (C) percentage of lesions ulcerating. No statistically significant differences were found in lesion circumference (nonlinear regression and extra sum of squares F-test) or lesion ulceration (multiple row t tests) between the two groups. Spirochete burdens in (D) cutaneous lesions, (E) spleens and (F) livers at the time of sacrifice (23 days post-challenge) assessed by qPCR (polA transcripts normalized to β-actin). Bars indicate the means of four TP0751-immunized and two sham-immunized animals. T. pallidum burdens in a punch biopsy of each cutaneious lesion and triplicate samples of liver and spleen from each rabbit were assayed by qPCR. p values for pairwise comparisons were determined using a two-tailed t test. (N.S. = not significant).