Staphylococcus aureus requires less virulence to establish an infection in diabetic hosts

L Tuchscherr, È Korpos, H van de Vyver… - International Journal of …, 2018 - Elsevier
Staphylococcus aureus is the most frequent pathogen causing diabetic foot infections. Here,
we investigated the degree of bacterial virulence required to establish invasive tissue
infections in diabetic organisms. Staphylococcal isolates from diabetic and non-diabetic foot
ulcers were tested for their virulence in in vitro functional assays of host cell invasion and
cytotoxicity. Isolates from diabetes mellitus type I/II patients exhibited less virulence than
isolates from non-diabetic patients, but were nevertheless able to establish severe …