Figure 5

The impact of SapS on the immune cell composition observed in the blood of mice infected with S. aureus. C57BL/6N mice were infected with S. aureus strain SA564 (black symbols), SA564 ΔsapS (blue symbols), and the cis-complemented derivative SA564 ΔsapS::sapS (grey symbols), respectively (n = 10 per group). After 4 days of infection, blood was withdrawn from narcotized mice, red blood cells lysed, the residual blood cells stained with fluorochrome-conjugated antibodies and the cell contents of leukocytes (A), neutrophils (B), monocytes (C), B cells (D), T cells (E), and NK cells (F) determined by flow cytometry. Blood from age-matched uninfected mice served as control (white symbols). Each symbol represents the cell content obtained from the blood of an individual mouse. The median of all the observations is shown by the horizontal bar. ns, not significant; * p < 0.05 (Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s post hoc test. Only significant differences between WT-infected and mutant-infected mice are shown).