Staphylococcal Infections in Aging Mice

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Abstract
Aging (17 to 22 months old) and young (½ to 2 months old) mice were infected with 5 x 107 staphylococci. Twenty-eight-day mortality was 70% in senescent mice and 14.3% in young mice. Phagocytosis and intracellular killing of staphylococci by polymorphonuclear leukocytes and mononuclear cells and leukocyte mobilization were studied after intraperitoneal infection. Intracellular killing by polymorphonuclear leukocytes was slightly more effective in young mice but older mice mobilized about twice as many polymorphonuclear leukocytes in a 4-hour period. In older mice the lethality of intraperitoneally administered staphylococcal toxins and salmonella endotoxin was markedly increased, the mortality rates in old and young mice being virtually identical to those found after intravenous infection with living staphylococci