Leptospiral burden in kidney tissue.

<p>Kidney tissue was subjected to DNA extraction and real-time PCR to measure the leptospiral burden per microgram of tissue DNA. Means are depicted as bold horizontal bars along with standard deviations. Animals that survived to 28 days (blue diamonds) had higher leptospiral burdens than those that met end-point criterion early (red circles). Of the groups with 100% survival to 28 days, animals immunized with heat-killed leptospires (HKL) had lower bacterial burdens than those immunized with LigA fragments. LigA-immunized groups that survived up to 28 days were used for statistical comparisons (one-way ANOVA, P<0.05).