A mouse model for staphylococcal enterotoxins toxicity.

The study of staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE), which can adversely affect man and animals, is hindered by the absence of a practical animal model. Only humans and primates are sensitive to SE oral intake whereas other species such as cats and dogs require intravenous SE administration to induce biological effects. Rodents are very resistant even to relatively high doses of SE. Treatment of mice with D-galactosamine (20 mg/mouse) rendered them highly susceptible to micrograms of toxins leading to lethal shock. Differences in toxic potential have been observed between types of SE. Carboximethylated SE, which have been shown not to induce emesis in primates were also able to induce shock. Anti-tumour necrosis factor antiserum (anti-TNF-alpha) and, to a lesser extent anti-SE antisera, reduced the lethality to SE in D-galactosamine-treated mice. This proposed cost-effective animal model may be used to study the immunopathological properties of natural, recombinant or mutant SE.