Fig. 1

Examination of K-wire localization and microbial load in bone and K-wires after surgery. The K-wire was inserted in the tibia of Sprague Dawley rats surgically and examined by X-ray to assure its positioning (a). The microbial load before K-wire implantation and after surgery (b). The microbial load was estimated for both K-wires and bone (n = 3) to ensure an equal starting microbial load (USA300 LAC, msaABCR mutant, and complementation strains) prior to the infection process. Error bars indicate standard errors of the means. The differences in the numbers of microbial CFUs between the test strains were not statistically significant when analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed a post-hoc Tukey test