Local Inflammation Exacerbates the Severity of Staphylococcus aureus Skin Infection |
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| Authors: | Christopher P Montgomery Melvin D Daniels Fan Zhao Brad Spellberg Anita S Chong Robert S Daum |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.; 2. Department of Surgery, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.; 3. Division of General Internal Medicine, Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center, Torrance, California, United States of America.; National Institutes of Health, United States of America, |
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| Abstract: | Staphylococcus aureus is the leading cause of skin infections. In a mouse model of S. aureus skin infection, we found that lesion size did not correlate with bacterial burden. Athymic nude mice had smaller skin lesions that contained lower levels of myeloperoxidase, IL-17A, and CXCL1, compared with wild type mice, although there was no difference in bacterial burden. T cell deficiency did not explain the difference in lesion size, because TCR βδ (-/-) mice did not have smaller lesions, and adoptive transfer of congenic T cells into athymic nude mice prior to infection did not alter lesion size. The differences observed were specific to the skin, because mortality in a pneumonia model was not different between wild type and athymic nude mice. Thus, the clinical severity of S. aureus skin infection is driven by the inflammatory response to the bacteria, rather than bacterial burden, in a T cell independent manner. |
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