Contributions of <i>coa</i> and <i>vWbp</i> to bacterial survival in blood and <i>S. aureus</i> induced lethal bacteremia or renal abscess formation in mice.

(A) S. aureus Newman as well as its variants Δcoa, ΔvWbp or ΔvWbp/Δcoa with or without complementing plasmids (pcoa and pvWbp) were incubated with lepirudin anticoagulated mouse blood for 30 minutes and bacterial survival assessed by colony formation on agar plates. Data were generated from three separate trials. (B) Cohorts of 10 mice were injected into the retro-orbital plexus with 1×108 CFU of S. aureus Newman (wild-type) as well as the Δcoa, ΔvWbp or ΔvWbp/Δcoa variants. Animal survival over time was recorded over 10 days. (C–R) Mice were injected into the retro-orbital plexus with 1×107 CFU of S. aureus Newman (C, E and K, M), ΔvWbp (D, F and M, L), Δcoa (G, I and O,Q) or ΔvWbp/Δcoa variants (H, J and P, R). Animals were killed 5 (C–J) or 15 days following challenge (K–R). Following necropsy, renal tissues were assessed for staphylococcal load (Table 1) and thin-sectioned, hematoxylin-eosin stained samples examined for histopathological features of abscess formation. Animal data are representative of two independent experiments.