Can commercial horse or sheep blood replace fresh human blood in an ex vivo model to study S. epidermidis virulence?

Abstract

[Excerpt] Staphylococcus epidermidis, a commensal bacterium of healthy human skin and mucosae, can cause serious bloodstream infections such as bacteremia and sepsis. These infections are very hard to cure with current antimicrobial strategies and, thus, it is urgent to find new treatment options. To do so, the study of S. epidermidis virulence factors is of utmost importance. Therefore, the ex vivo human blood model has gained special interest because it enables the study of S. epidermidis behavior in the context of a bloodstream infection. However, this model presents limitations, mainly related to the availability of donors, complicating its implementation in the academic context. To overcome this limitation, the possibility of replacing fresh human blood by commercial blood from other mammals was evaluated. [...]