Lymphocytic endometritis and salpingitis is enhanced in the absence of TLR3 in mice during middle stage of C. muridarum infection.

A) The extent of histopathological changes of uterine horns and oviducts were scored using a four-tiered semi-quantitative scoring system as described in Materials and Methods. These results were representative of 5–6 mice per group from two independent experiments. Differences between groups for each parameter were determined by two-tailed Mann-Whitney test (* = p < 0.05). Only significant results are displayed in graphs. B-E) Histopathological evaluation of uterine horns from WT and TLR3-/- mice showed that lymphocytes (arrows) were commonly infiltrating the endometrial stroma at day 21 of C. muridarum infection. Reproductive tracts of TLR3-/- mice exhibited significantly higher lymphocytic inflammation than WT mice (A asterisk; B-E 20–400x magnification). F-G) Histopathological evaluation of oviducts from WT and TLR3-/- mice showed that lymphocytic (arrowhead) inflammation was commonly found within the oviducts of TLR3-/- mice (G 400x magnification). No significant differences in PMN infiltration was noted between the genital tracts of WT and TLR3-/- mice. Representative images for WT and TLR3-/- mice are shown. (• = WT mouse; ▪ = TLR3-/- mouse).