Virulence of pneumococcal zinc metalloproteinase mutants at different doses of intranasal challenge

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Taken from "The three extra-cellular zinc metalloproteinases of have a different impact on virulence in mice"

BMC Microbiology 2003;3():14-14.

Published online 3 Jul 2003

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC166150.

Copyright © 2003 Chiavolini et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.

Mice were infected intranasally (i.n.) with different doses: panel (A) 107 CFU/mouse, panel (B) 106 CFU/mouse, and panel (C) 105 CFU/mouse. Bacterial strains were TIGR4 (open circles, n = 12 for 106 CFU and n = 6 for 107 and 105 CFU), ΔzmpC (solid triangles, n = 12 for 106 CFU and n = 6 for 107 and 105 CFU), ΔzmpB (open diamonds, n = 6) and Δiga (crosses, n = 6) mutants. Animals were observed for 8 days. Results are expressed as percentage of mice surviving intranasal challenge and subsequent sepsis over time. Statistical analysis (Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon U Test) was performed considering the time point when mice died (P < 0.01). For statistical purposes, animals still alive after 8 days were assigned a time to death of 192 h. The data referring to the 106 CFU inoculum of the ΔzmpC mutant were already reported combined to bacteremia levels.