Tularemia is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by the facultative intracellular bacterium Francisella tularensis. The initial clinical presentation and dominant features of this condition reflect the mode of transmission and the route of infection. The ulceroglandular form, most frequently acquired from bites of arthropods, is characterized by an initial papular skin lesion that can progress to an eschar or ulcer with regional lymphadenopathy. Inhalation of aerosolized bacteria or secondary hematogenous dissemination of infection to the lungs results in pneumonic tularemia characterized by fever, a broad range in the severity of respiratory symptoms, and a high mortality rate. In the so-called "typhoidal" form of tularemia, patients present with similar systemic symptoms without a clear focus of primary infection. They may show sepsis and rhabdomyolysis with multiorgan system failure, including renal impairment. Following pulmonary and gastrointestinal infection, systemic dissemination of the pathogen leads to the colonization of the liver, where organisms infect both macrophages and hepatocytes (4, 6). At autopsy, the livers of infected human beings often show areas of focal coagulation necrosis throughout the parenchyma of the organ (18).The infection of mice with the live vaccine strain (LVS) of F. tularensis subsp. holarctica is a commonly used animal model and is associated with the formation of multifocal hepatic microgranluomas containing CD11b ϩ macrophages and Gr-1 ϩ