Fig 1. Nasal mucosa of immunocompetent C57BL/6J mice restricts proliferation of B. pertussis inoculated at a high dose.

Nares of C57BL/6J mice were inoculated with 10⁹ CFU of B. pertussis Tohama I (Str^R) applied in 5 μl of suspension to prevent inhalation into lungs. At indicated time points the mice were sacrificed and bacterial loads in the nasal cavity and in the lungs were determined by plating of organ homogenates on BG agar. Three mice per time points of 2 h and 35 days were used and groups of 8 mice were used for other time points. Data for day 7 represent a pool of CFU values from 35 mice used in seven independent experiments (n = 35). The horizontal bars indicate the geometric mean values.