[Digestive and cutaneous colonization of Staphylococcus epidermidis in hairless axenic mice].

In order to determine the cutaneous and digestive colonization of S. epidermidis in germ-free HRS mice, several groups of animals were contaminated with this strain according to different methods. The bacterial cutaneous enumerations were performed after preliminary crushing of the cutaneous biopsy. In this study, whatever the method of contamination of germ-free HRS mice, the kinetics of S. epidermidis cutaneous colonization was parallel to the kinetics of intestinal colonization. The isolation of bacteria on skin was possible only when microorganisms were eliminated in faeces (6 h after contamination). During a single experiment, there was only slight variability in colonization, whether intestinal or cutaneous. Some differences could be found from one experiment to another, but all animals in the same trial showed the same cutaneous bacterial count. This experimental model is characterized by an interrelation between the intestinal and cutaneous ecosystems.