4.4. Animal Care and Experimental Procedures

Male Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice aged 6–8 weeks were obtained from the National Laboratory Animal Centre (Taipei, Taiwan) and handled according to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Guides for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. ICR mice were anesthetized with ethyl ether and placed individually on a board in a near vertical position; the tongues were withdrawn with a lined forceps. S. aureus (2 × 10⁷ CFU/mouse) was placed posterior in the throat and aspirated into lungs. Control mice were administrated BHI. Mice regained consciousness after 15 min. Mice were intraperitoneal given one dose of LY294002, SH-5, SP600125, U0126, Bay11-7082, or GR343 (2 mg/kg) or TLR2 or VCAM-1 neutralizing antibody (5 mg/kg) for 1 h or resveratrol (5 mg/kg) for 24 h prior to S. aureus (2 × 10⁷ CFU/mouse) treatment, and sacrificed after 24 h.