Fig. 4: Prosthetic joint infection (PJI) model.

a Experimental setup. Female, 6–8 weeks old C57BL/6 were used. For antibiotic treatment, mice received antibiotics starting on day 14 after infection every 24 h for 7 days until the end of the experiment. Controls received no antibiotic. Mice received intraperitoneal injections of 0.25 ml containing 0.3 mg ml⁻¹ Van (3.75 mg kg⁻¹) or oral doses of 0.4 ml containing 0.04 mg ml⁻¹ Lev (0.8 mg kg⁻¹). All mice were infected with the same CFU (~1 × 10⁷ CFU in 50 μl, intra-articular injection). b Results obtained with infection by S. aureus LAC wild-type with and without antibiotics. c Results obtained with infection by S. aureus LAC wild-type versus isogenic Δagr mutant. d Results obtained with infection by S. aureus LAC Δagr with and without antibiotics. n = 8. Statistical analysis is 1-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s post-tests versus data obtained with wild-type control (b, d) and by unpaired, two-tailed t-test (c). Error bars show the geometric mean and geometric SD.