title: Panton-Valentine leukocidin does play a role in the early stage of Staphylococcus aureus skin infections: a rabbit model.
abstract: Despite epidemiological data linking necrotizing skin infections with the production of Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), the contribution of this toxin to the virulence of S. aureus has been highly discussed as a result of inconclusive results of in vivo studies. However, the majority of these results originate from experiments using mice, an animal species which neutrophils--the major target cells for PVL--are highly insensitive to the action of this leukocidin. In contrast, the rabbit neutrophils have been shown to be as sensitive to PVL action as human cells, making the rabbit a better experimental animal to explore the PVL role. In this study we examined whether PVL contributes to S. aureus pathogenicity by means of a rabbit skin infection model. The rabbits were injected intradermally with 10(8) cfu of either a PVL positive community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolate, its isogenic PVL knockout or a PVL complemented knockout strain, and the development of skin lesions was observed. While all strains induced skin infection, the wild type strain produced larger lesions and a higher degree of skin necrosis compared to the PVL knockout strain in the first week after the infection. The PVL expression in the rabbits was indirectly confirmed by a raise in the serum titer of anti-LukS-PV antibodies observed only in the rabbits infected with PVL positive strains. These results indicate that the rabbit model is more suitable for studying the role of PVL in staphylococcal diseases than other animal models. Further, they support the epidemiological link between PVL producing S. aureus strains and necrotizing skin infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Avian Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium. urszula.lipinska@ugent.be
authors.forename: Urszula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lipinska
authors.forename: Katleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hermans
authors.forename: Lieve
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meulemans
authors.forename: Oana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dumitrescu
authors.forename: Cedric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Badiou
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duchateau
authors.forename: Freddy
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Haesebrouck
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Etienne
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lina
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000378:metabolism*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005098:Exotoxins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D007956:Leukocidins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000472:pathogenicity; D011817:Rabbits; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D013207:Staphylococcal Skin Infections / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000472:pathogenicity*
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D005098:Exotoxins; D007956:Leukocidins; C078284:Panton-Valentine leukocidin