Figure 4. S. epidermidis skin colonization does not change the composition or costimulatory molecule expression of skin APCs relative to GF APCs.

APCs from the flank skin of SPF, GF, and 10 day–painted S. epidermidis–monocolonized GF mice were analyzed by flow cytometry. (A) Gating strategy for different DC populations and fold change relative to the average percentage of DC subsets within GF controls in each experiment. (B) Fold change in MFI relative to that in GF mice for costimulatory molecules on CD11c⁺-gated cells. Data were normalized from 3 individual experiments with n = 2–5 per group. Data represent the mean ± SEM. Statistical analyses were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test for multiple comparisons. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01.