Decreased cell death of infected macrophages and increased RB51 survival inside macrophages with the usage of the caspase-2 inhibitor.

<p>Macrophages pretreated with Z-VDVAD-FMK were infected with RB51 for 24 h at a MOI of 200. (A) Macrophages pretreated with the caspase-2 inhibitor and infected with RB51 released less LDH than infected cells lacking inhibitor. (B) Growth kinetics of RB51 in macrophages. The number of RB51 cells surviving inside macrophages pretreated with the caspase-2 inhibitor was approximately 120 times greater than the number of cells found in untreated macrophages (<i>P</i><0.05). The asterisk (*) represents significant difference (<i>P</i><0.05) in the LDH release or bacterial CFUs from RB51-infected macrophages with caspase-2 inhibitor treatment compared to that without caspase-2 inhibitor. Data represent the means±standard deviations from three independent experiments.