Intravenous mouse injections

6–7 week old Female BALB/c mice were purchased from Envigo (formerly Harlan (UK)) and maintained at the University of Sheffield using standard husbandry procedures. The mice were acclimatised for 1 week. The mice were then inoculated in the tail vein with 100 μl of S. aureus suspension in endotoxin-free PBS (Sigma) diluted from frozen stocks. Viable bacteria in the inoculum were plated on TSB (plus appropriate antibiotics) after serial decimal dilution to confirm the accuracy of the bacterial dose. Mice were monitored and sacrificed at various time-points according to experimental design.