Fig. 3. S. aureus Lpp promote skin abscesses, prolong wound healing, and sustain higher bacterial burden in local skin.

The skin lesion size (mm²) (A), and skin wound healing (B) in NMRI mice (n = 4/group) up to 21 days after subcutaneous (s.c.) skin injection with 50 μl of Staphylococcus aureus SA113 parental strain or SA113Δlgt mutant strain (7.5 × 10⁷ colony-forming units [CFU]/site). Bacterial counts (C) and levels of D macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2), E keratinocyte chemoattractant (KC), F monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) and G myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels in the supernatant of skin biopsy homogenates from healthy NMRI mice (n = 4–5) or from mice on day 3 after s.c. skin infection with SA113 parental strain or SA113Δlgt mutant strain (1.25 × 10⁸ CFU/site; n = 6/group). The skin lesion size (mm²) development in NMRI mice (n = 7/group) up to 3 days (H), and bacterial counts (I), levels of MIP-2 (J), KC (K), MCP-1 (L) and MPO (M) in the supernatant of skin biopsy homogenates on day 3 after s.c. skin infection with 50 μl of Staphylococcus aureus SA113Δlgt mutant strain or complemented mutant SA113Δlgt (pRB474::lgt) strain (7.5×10⁷ CFU/site). The data were pooled from two independent experiments. Statistical evaluations were performed using the Mann–Whitney U test, with data expressed as the mean ± standard error of the mean (A, H), or presented as scatterplot with line indicating median value (C–G, I–M). Statistical evaluations were performed using Mantel–Cox log-rank test (B). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ns = not significant.