Early Severe Inflammatory Responses to Uropathogenic E. coli Predispose to Chronic and Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection (original) (raw)
Figure 7
C3H mice treated with the glucocorticoid anti-inflammatory drug, dexamethasone, just prior to infection have muted acute inflammatory responses to UPEC infection and are protected against chronic cystitis.
C3H/HeN mice were treated with either saline (closed circles) or 200 µg dexamethasone sodium phosphate (open circles) two hours prior to infection with 108 cfu UTI89 KanR. A, urine (U), bladder (B) and kidney (K) titers were determined at 4 wpi; solid lines connect the different urine and tissue titers from the same mouse. B, PMN scores of the urine sediments were determined 24 hpi. A–B, Data are compiled from three independent experiments. C, Percent weight change at 24 hpi was determined. D, Serum cytokine analysis of mice at 24 hpi with 108 cfu of UTI89 KanR is depicted. C–D, Data are compiled from four independent experiments. E–G, C3H/HeN mice pre-treated with either saline or dexamethasone were sacrificed at 24 hpi and paraffin-embedded, fixed bladder sections were stained with hematoxylin & eosin and examined by light microscopy. Semi-quantative bladder inflammatory scores are plotted in panel E, and representative images of bladders from mice treated with F, saline, and G, dexamethasone, are depicted; arrowheads indicate apparent IBCs; bars approximate 50 µm in length. All statistics in panels B–E are the results of the Mann-Whitney U test: *, P<0.05, **, P<0.01, and ***, P<0.001; horizontal bars indicate median values.