Rabbit-IgG specific for the 119–139 sequence from AT protects mice from LAC/USA300-mediated dermonecrosis.

<p>Groups of BALB/c mice (n = 5 except control IgG, n = 7) were passively immunized s.c. with normalized volumes of the respective affinity purified rabbit sera to establish approximately equivalent serum antibody titers in recipient mice. Approximately 48 hours later, all mice were bled and individual mouse sera were evaluated by ELISA for reactivity with immobilized AT (A) and in the TNA (B). All groups were then challenged i.d. with 38 x 10⁶ LAC/USA300. Forty-eight hours later, all mice were euthanized, lesions were photographed (C) and lesion areas determined (D). Mice passively immunized with rabbit IgG specific for the 119–139 sequence had significantly smaller lesions than mice receiving Control IgG (*<i>p</i> = 0.008, Kruskal Wallis; <i>p</i>< 0.05, Dunn’s multiple comparison test: 119–139 vs Control IgG). Lesion areas from groups of mice receiving the 114–131 and 130–147 IgG were not significantly different from the lesion areas of mice receiving the irrelevant Control-IgG, nor were they significantly different from the lesion sizes of mice administered 119–139 IgG, as assessed using the Dunn’s post-hoc analysis. Horizontal lines in (A), (B) and (D) represent geometric means.