Figure 4.
Caspase-11 is essential in defense against S. flexneri lacking OspC3 in vivo
(A and B) Indicated mice were infected i.p. with 5 × 107 CFU of S. flexneri wild-type or ΔospC3 and bacterial loads in the spleen (A) and liver (B) were determined 24 hr after infection.
(C, D, G, and H) Indicated mice were co-infected i.p. with 2.5 × 107 CFU of both wild-type S. flexneri and S. flexneri ΔospC3 encoding ampicillin or kanamycin resistance, respectively. Bacterial loads from co-infected mice were determined 24 hr after infection and competitive index calculated (CI = log (S. flexneri ΔospC3/S. flexneri wild type)) in spleen (C and G) and liver (D and H).
(E and F) Indicated mice were infected i.p. with 7.5 × 107 CFU of S. flexneri wild type or ΔospC3, and survival was monitored twice per day for 10 days.
Data are representative of three experiments. Bar represents mean. Dashed line in (A and B) indicates limit of detection and in (C, D, G, and H) represents the x axis. For bacterial burdens (A and B), statistical significance was assessed by two-tailed Student's t-test (∗p ≤ 0.05, ∗∗p ≤ 0.01, ns: not significant). For competitive index (C, D, G, and H), statistical significance was determined using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's multiple comparison test with a statistical threshold of p ≤ 0.05. Survival curves were compared using log rank (Mantel-Cox) test with Bonferroni-corrected threshold for statistical significance of p ≤ 0.003 (E, F). Groups that do not share a letter are significantly different from each other.