Fig. 1

Mechanisms of susceptibility to S. xylosus spontaneous skin infection. Spontaneous infections of murine models of disease reveal specific mechanisms important for prevention of S. xylosus establishing infection in skin. These can be broadly broken down into two classes, barrier and immune related. Mice with barrier function defects including those with defects in the cornified envelope and altered structure of the stratified keratinocyte layers show a significant susceptibility to spontaneous S. xylosus infection. In addition, mice with impaired reactive oxygen species production, lacking lymphocytes, lacking T lymphocytes, or displaying impaired class switching indicate immune mechanisms important for the normal immune response to S. xylosus