Staphylococcus aureus on the skin of test mice with lupus worsens their symptoms

A team of researchers at the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, working with a colleague from Japan’s National Cancer Center, has found that the presence of Staphylococcus aureus on the skin of test mice with a lupus-like disease was found to worsen the disease’s symptoms. In their paper published in the journal Science Immunology, the group describes the impact of the bacteria on mice with Sjögren syndrome, an autoimmune disease that is present in lupus mouse models and many human patients.