FIG. 3.

Efficacy of different doses of a subunit vaccine based on Ag85B-ESAT-6. C57BL/6J mice were immunized s.c. three times with different doses of Ag85B-ESAT-6 emulsified in MPL-DDA. Mice immunized with the adjuvant alone were included. Ten weeks after the first vaccination, the mice received an aerosol challenge with M. tuberculosis Erdman, and the numbers of bacteria (CFU) were quantified in the lungs and spleens 6 weeks later. The values are shown as log₁₀ CFU in the lung and spleen. All data represent the mean of 5 to 20 individual mice ± standard error of the mean. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of animals in each group. CFU counts in naive mice were 5.74 ± 0.04 and 4.65 ± 0.22 (n = 10) in the lung and spleen, respectively. ∗∗, P < 0.01; ∗∗∗, P < 0.001 compared to naive mice.