Staphylococcus lugdunensis - a potential pathogen in oral infection

Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate the pathogenicity o f Staphylococcus lugdunensis in acute oral infection. Study design. S lugdunensis was isolated from patients with acute oral infe ctions and from healthy control subjects. Antibiotic susceptibility, in vit ro cellular toxicity, in vivo virulence, and hemolytic activity testing and dot blot analysis were performed. The statistical significance of in vitro cellular toxicity was determined by means of analysis of variance. Results. isolated from the infected patients, S lugdunensis showed resistan ce to penicillin, ampicillin, methicillin, cephalothin, and clindamycin, ex hibited virulence in vivo, and showed delta-like hemolysin activity. Four o f the 6 strains of S lugdunensis gave synergistic hemolysis. In dot blot an alysis, S lugdunensis showed a positive reaction to the probe of the delta- hemolysin gene in S aureus. Conclusions. The results suggest that S lugdunensis may be a potential path ogen in acute oral infection.