Toxicological Potential of Staphylococcus Species from Specific Environment in the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria

Staphylococci are Gram-positive bacteria, with diameters of 0.5 – 1.5 μm and characterised by individual cocci, which divide in more than one plane to form grape-like clusters. They are non-motile, non-spore forming facultative anaerobes that grow by aerobic respiration or by fermentation. The present animal that has been infected with Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) to study their pathogenicity. Nine wistar albino rat were divided randomly into three groups (each group contain 3 animals): group (1) (control group) were kept without inoculation. The second and third group (treated group) were inoculated intra-dermal with (0.5 ml) of bacterial inoculum (2.6 x 105) cfu/ml. The blood samples of the animals were taken to test for their blood parameters which include packed cell volume, red blood cell, white blood cell counts, neutrophil, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosin, and basophil. The clinical signs noticed in infected groups were decreased appetite, mild fever and abscess formation in one or two of the animals at site of injection. Histopatological investigations were carried out on the kidney, lungs and liver. The statistical analysis revealed that there was significant increase in red blood cell, (p<0.05) in infected group as compared with control while the packed cell volume, neutrophil, white blood cell, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosin, and basophil showed no significant differences when compared with the control group (Table 1). Histopathological study revealed that there were: vacuolization of glomerular (VG) and vacuolization of the tubules (VT), distruption of glomerular capillaries (DG) and distruption of congested glomerular with vacuolar appearance (CGV) in the kidney cell, in liver: there were ruptured vein (RV), mild Kuffer cells infiltration (MK) and necrotic effects (N) and in the lungs there were edema (E), hemorrhage (H), necrotic effects (N), hemorrhage and necrosis (HN) in the infected wistar albino rat. In conclusion the colonization with strains of S. epidermidis and S. aureus cause devastating effects on certain vital organs such as kidney, liver and lungs which, depending on their severity, which could be fatal.