M. tuberculosis and SR-B1 Figure 6. The effect of cholesterol in SR-B12/2 mice during Mtb infection. Wild type C57/BL6 and SR-B12/2 mice were fed either a low cholesterol diet (LC, 0.15% cholesterol) or a high cholesterol diet (HC, 1.25% cholesterol) throughout the experiment, infected with 100 CFU Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv by aerosol route and sacrificed after 4 months. (A) Levels of serum cholesterol following 2 weeks on the various diets, as indicated, prior to infection (black bars representing wild type, and white bars the SR-B12/2 animals). (B) Average mouse weight throughout the course of the experiment, presented as % of original body weight 6SEM. 4 months after infection the mice were analyzed for serum cholesterol (C), histopathology (D), bacterial burdens (E), and pulmonary TNF, IFNc, IL10, IL12p70 and IL6 (F) with the black circles representing wild type and the open circles representing SR-B12/2 animals. Shown are the data from individual mice and the median value. *, p,0.05. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008448.g006 PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 9 December 2009 | Volume 4 | Issue 12 | e8448