Age-matched conventional and germ-free mice (Swiss
Webster strain) were obtained from commercial sources
(Taconic Farms, Inc., Petersburgh, NY) and used for
experiments on the same day when they arrived at the
Medical College of Georgia. The Medical College of
Georgia does not have a germ-free facility, and therefore,
the animals could not be acclimatized prior to the experiments.
However, since the conventional mice as well as the
germ-free mice were treated the same way, it was presumed
that the lack of acclimatization of the animals would not be
a confounding factor in the interpretation of the results. For
studies involving colonization of germ-free mice with
bacteria, age-matched conventional and germ-free mice