Human Skin Window Studies: II. Comparison of Cellular Response to Staphylococcus in Controls and in Patients with Cutaneous Bacterial Infections

Abstract

experiments with poliomyelitis antigen, reported that subjects with elevated serum neutralizing antibody titer to the antigen had a mononuclear cellular response, in contrast to the absence of such responses in volunteer control subjects who had not been immunized with poliomyelitis vaccine. In 1961, at a meeting of this society, we reported the results of skin window experiments which were designed to study the inflammatory response to the contact allergen, Rhus oleoresin (9). The cellular pattern in subjects with positive patch tests to Rhus was compared with the response in volurteers who had negative patch tests to Rhus. In the subjects with positive patch tests, the response was characterized by a marked increase in eosinophils, large multinucleated giant cells, and an increase in lymphocytes. In our early skin window experiments, it was noted that bacterial contamination of the windows seemed to modify the cellular pattern in a significant manner. Since then, we have emphasized the investigation of the effects of whole cell suspensions of bacteria and bacterial prodncts in the skin windows of individuals with and without cutaneous bacterial infections. The purpose of this report is to describe the cellular patterns which have been observed with suspensions of staphylococci and a purified polysaccharidc antigen prepared from the same strain of staphylococci and finally to discuss the possible significance of these findings.