Using confocal laser-scanning microscopy, Hanssen and colleagues from Tromsø in Norway (1) could identify S. aureus intracellularly in keratinocytes of deeper epidermal layers. For their experiments, they biopsied the vestibula nasi of healthy nasal carriers. Their findings corroborate earlier observations in patients with recurrent sinusitis made by Clement et al. (2) and confirm that intracellular S. aureus localization is an important concept for our improved understanding of nasal carriage in the general population. This hideaway may protect staphylococci thus explaining both, commonly observed re-colonization after topical decolonization therapy as well as improved eradication success after systemic application of intracellularly accumulating antibiotics with activity against S. aureus such as rifampicin. Presented by Philipp Zanger
(1) Hanssen AM, Kindlund B, Stenklev NC, Furberg AS, Fismen S, Olsen RS, Johannessen M, Sollid JU (2017)
Localization of Staphylococcus aureus in tissue from the nasal vestibule in healthy carriers
BMC Microbiology 17:89. doi: 10.1186/s12866-017-0997-3.
(2) Clement S, Vaudaux P, Francois P, Schrenzel J, Huggler E, Kampf S, Chaponnier C, Lew D, Lacroix JS (2005)
Evidence of an intracellular reservoir in the nasal mucosa of patients with recurrent Staphylococcus aureus rhinosinusitis
Journal of Infectious Diseases 192:1023-8.