FIG 2.

Effect of spleen removal on the spreading of hematogenous Chlamydia to the gastrointestinal tract. Groups of female C57BL/6J mice without (a and b; n = 5) or with (c and d; n = 4) splenectomy were inoculated retro-orbitally with Chlamydia. All mice were monitored for live chlamydial organism shedding from both vaginal (a and c) and rectal (b and d) swabs, and the titers were expressed as log₁₀ IFU per swab on different days after intravaginal infection. Note that hematogenous Chlamydia was detected on the rectal swabs but not vaginal swabs of all mice regardless of splenectomy. P > 0.05 (b versus d, area under the curve, Wilcoxon rank sum). The number of mice with shedding is indicated for the points where not all mice were positive for shedding. The data were acquired from two independent experiments.