Figure 5.

S. aureus-colonized mesh implantation induces autoantibody production dependent on TLRs. (A) S. aureus WT colonized mesh or (B) control mesh was implanted subcutaneously into the back flanks of C57BL/6 wildtype (WT) (black bars), TLR2^-/- (blue bars), TLR9 mutant (TLR9M) (gray bars), and TLR2^-/- - TLR9M (TLR2^-/–9M) (red bars) mice. Blood was collected via tail bleeding every week and sampled for production of anti-dsDNA autoantibodies (optical density 650-405nm). Black dotted line represents the maximum autoantibody production of positive control sera and the red dotted line represent autoantibody detection in naïve serum. Mean and SEM graphed; significance was calculated using a 2-way ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparisons tests (***, P < 0.001).