Figure 1.

Endogenous C. difficile contamination attenuates severe disease in mice infected with pathogenic VPI

(a) Schematic of antibiotic (ABX) treatment and C. difficile infection. (b-c) Mice were infected with VPI 10463 spores. (b) Percent of initial weight from day of infection. (c) Survival of VPI infected mice contaminated with endogenous C. difficile and non-contaminated mice. (d) C. difficile burden in fecal pellets of C57BL/6 mice following a PBS mock infection. (e) PCR ribotyping of CD196, VPI10463, R20291 C. difficile strains and the unknown C. difficile strain isolated from gastrointestinal track of PBS mock infected C. difficile culture positive mice. (f) PCR ribotype of unknown C. difficile strain and reference F035 ribotype as determined by fluorescent PCR ribotyping. n = 6–8 mice/group. LOD – Limit of Detection. * = p < .05, *** = p < .001.