Protection against experimental pulmonary cryptococcosis following secondary challenge.

<p>BALB/c mice were immunized with either heat-killed <i>C. neoformans</i> (HK<i>C.n.</i>) (white bars) or <i>C. neoformans</i> strain H99γ (gray bars), allowed 100 days to resolve the infection, and subsequently given a second challenge with <i>C. neoformans</i> strain H99. Lungs were excised at days 3, 7, and 14 post-secondary inoculation, and the cryptococcal burden was quantified. Results are expressed as mean log CFU per milliliter ± standard errors of the means. Asterisks (*) indicate where significant decreases (<i>P</i><0.01) in CFU were observed compared to mice immunized with HK<i>C.n.</i> Pulmonary fungal burden data are cumulative of three experiments using 5 mice per time point. Separate mice were used for each time point.