Fig. 4. S. aureus Lpp-induced fulminant bacterial growth is independent of host TLR2 signaling.

The skin lesion size (mm²) in C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) mice (A) and TLR2 deficient (TLR2^−/−) mice (B) up to 10 days after subcutaneous (s.c.) skin injection with 20 μl of Staphylococcus aureus Newman parental strain or NewmanΔlgt mutant strain (1.5–2.0 × 10⁶ colony-forming units [CFU]/site; n = 13–14/group). Bacterial counts in the supernatant of skin biopsy homogenates on day 3 (n = 5/group) (C) and day 10 (n = 7–8/group) (D) after s.c. skin infection with Newman parental strain or NewmanΔlgt mutant strain (1.5–2.0 × 10⁶ CFU/site). The data were pooled from two independent experiments. Statistical evaluations were performed using the Mann–Whitney U test, with data expressed as the mean ± standard error of the mean (A, B), or presented as scatterplot with line indicating median value (C, D). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.