Fig. 2: Macrophages, monocytes and neutrophils are recruited in the omentum after B. abortus infection from the acute to the chronic phase.

a At 8 or 30 days post-infection (p.i.) of C57BL/6 mice i.p. infected with B. abortus (Ba) (red square) or mock-injected with PBS (black circle), omentum and peritoneal fluid were harvested, and individualized cells analyzed by flow cytometry. Normalized absolute numbers of omental and peritoneal F4/80^hi LPM, F4/80^intMHCII^hi SPM, Ly6C^hi monocytes, or Ly6G⁺ neutrophils at the indicated time points are shown. Each symbol represents one animal. (PBS, 2-3 mice; Ba, 3-4 mice), n = 3. Mean from pooled data ± SD. Significant differences are shown (Mann-Whitney test, two-sided). Absence of p-value, non-significant. b Confocal microscopy images of wholemount staining of omenta harvested at day 8 or 30 p.i. from i.p. infected C57BL/6 mice or mock-PBS treated. F4/80 (green, macrophages), Ly6G (magenta, neutrophils), Ly6C (violet, monocytes and endothelial cells of blood vessels), B220 (red, B cells), and CD3 (cyan, T cells). B and/or T cell localization defines the milky spot (MS). Individual stainings of cells present in the selected square are on the right. 3 mice, n = 2. Scale bar, 20 µm. c Median expression of selected differentially expressed genes from published RNA seq transcriptomic profiling obtained from whole blood samples from healthy donor controls or primary brucellosis patients in acute, acute relapse, or chronic phase of infection^37,38. X-axis: Healthy donor controls n = 32 (Gray); Brucellosis patients: Acute n = 56 (Yellow), Acute with relapse n = 6 but for CXCL1 n = 4 (Orange), Chronic n = 11 (Blue). Y-axis: log2 residual gene expression counts. Each symbol represents one patient or healthy donor. Mean ± SD. Significant differences are shown (Multiple comparison Kruskal Wallis test, followed by post-hoc Dunn’s test). Absence of p-value, non-significant. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.