The animals were challenged intraperitoneally with different

dosages of either wild-type L. interrogans serovar Lai strain Lai or the fliY – mutant, and then observed for 10 d [1]. The animal experiments were approved by the Animal Ethics Review Committee of Zhejiang University. Statistical analysis see more Data from a minimum of three experiments were averaged and presented as mean ± SD (standard deviation). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test were used to determine significant differences. Statistical significance was defined as P value ≤ 0.05. Acknowledgements This work was supported by a Grant (30370072) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and a grant (2007XZA02) from the Natural Scientific National Foundation of Zhejiang Medical College of China. We are grateful to Dr. Tanya Parish and Dr. Amanda C. Brown (Center for Infectious Disease, AZD2281 Institute for Cell and Molecular Science, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, UK) for having graciously provided the plasmid p2NIL used in this study. References 1. Faine S, Adher B, Bloin C, Perolat P:Leptospira and leptospirosis. 2 Edition Australia: MedSci 1999. 2. Bharti AR, Nally JE, Ricaldi JN, Matthias MA, Diaz MM, Lovett MA, Levett PN, Gilman RH, Willig MR, Gotuzzo E, Vinetz

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