The hyaluronic acid capsule is important for resisting neutrophil-mediated killing in the skin.

B6HLA mice were administered ~5 × 107 CFUs of wildtype S. pyogenes MGAS8232 or the ΔhasA or ΔhasA + hasA complemented strain intradermally in each hind flank. Mice received αLy6G or rat IgG2a isotype control antibodies intraperitoneally 24 h preceding and 24 h after skin infections. (A) Weights of B6HLA mice at 24, 48, and 72 h following S. pyogenes skin challenge. Data is represented as a percentage of day 0 weight. Data points represent the weight means ± SEM (n ≥ 3). (B) Skin lesion areas of mice following at 24, 48, and 72 h after skin challenge. Data points represent individual lesion areas (2 per mouse), and the bars represent the mean. (C) Data points represent CFUs from individual infected skin lesions from mice at 72 h. Horizontal bars represent the geometric mean. The horizontal dotted line indicates limit of detection. Significance was determined by two-way ANOVA with Geisser’s Greenhouse correction and Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test (*, P P P A and B, or one-way ANOVA with Kruskal Wallis (***, P P C. (D) Representative skin lesion images from B6HLA mice 72 h following skin challenge.