Serious staphylococcal infections frequently begin in the skin. The present study used a
mouse model of such infections to evaluate the ability of Staphylococcus aureus to
disseminate from the skin and to determine if cutaneous damage from the infections was
required for dissemination. The mice were inoculated with S. aureus onto flank skin
prepared by a tape-stripping method that caused minimal disruption of the epidermal
keratinocyte layers. After these inoculations the staphylococci were found to disseminate to …