Four day time-course of wt and Δrex strains in an oral listeriosis model.
Female BALB/c mice were orally infected with 108 CFU of wt (black squares) or Δrex (blue circles) and the number of bacteria present in each tissue was determined over time. A. The body weights of the mice over time, reported as a percentage of body weight prior to infection. Data are the means and SEMs of n = 20 (day 1), n = 15 (day 2), n = 10 (day 3) and n = 5 (day 4). B-H. Mice were sacrificed each day and organs were harvested to enumerate bacterial burden. Each symbol represents an individual mouse (n = 5 per group), and the solid lines indicate the geometric means. Dashed lines indicate the limit of detection (l.o.d.). Results are expressed as log-transformed CFU per organ or per gram of feces. p values were calculated using a heteroscedastic Student’s t test. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.
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