Figure 6.

Large cellular infiltrates in the surrounding aortic wall promote tissue destruction. A, Brown-Hopps Gram stain of endocarditis vegetations induced by Staphylococcus aureus USA300 (n=19), S. aureus Newman (n=6), or the clinical S. aureus strain (n=42), depicting large cellular infiltrates (*) in the surrounding vasculature. B, Quantifications of the extraluminal leukocyte infiltration area in infected (red dots, n=19, 6, 42) compared with sterile (orange dots, n=18, 9, 19, respectively) thrombi. C, Click-iT Plus TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling) assay stained images of endocarditis vegetations (n=18, 6, 19, respectively), depicting apoptotic cells in red. DNA is stained with Hoechst 33342 in blue. D, Comparison of the extraluminal leukocyte infiltration area between the 3 different strains of S. aureus (n=19, 6, 42, respectively). E, Quantification of the TUNEL-positive area outside the thrombus in mice with infected vegetations caused by the 3 different strains of S. aureus (n=18, 6, 19, respectively). F, Spearman correlation between the leukocyte infiltration area and TUNEL-positive area located outside the infected vegetation caused by the 3 different strains of S. aureus (n=43). Scale bar represents 200 μm. Median (interquartile range) are shown and significance level is evaluated by Mann-Whitney (B) or Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn post tests (D and E).