Toxic Shock Syndrome

[a_zed24]

Hello there,
do all wound infections transform into toxic shock syndrome?
I know the answer is no, because TSS is very rare, but why is that?
-Thanks!

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[limeymatey]

IIRC it's due to a release of a superantigen toxin by the bacteria in the wound. When it enters the bloodstream, it will cause a non-specific activation of the immune system and causes a cytokine storm, leading to the toxic shock syndrome.

 

[a_zed24]

IIRC it's due to a release of a superantigen toxin by the bacteria in the wound. When it enters the bloodstream, it will cause a non-specific activation of the immune system and causes a cytokine storm, leading to the toxic shock syndrome.

Thanks for your reply, but my Question was why is this so rare to happen? Why only few of the open wounds we have develop into a TSS?

 

[limeymatey]

The superantigen toxin is not produced by bacteria in every infection, and not all bacteria carry the genes for the toxin. There are various types of superantigen toxin, each with different levels of virulence.

Environmental factors (cues for gene expression) affect how much of the toxin is expressed by bacteria. This determines if and how much toxin is expressed and whether or not TSS will develop from a wound infection.

To answer your question, TSS is rare because not all wound infections meet the criteria for the expression of the class of superantigen toxin responsible for TSS.

 

[a_zed24]

The superantigen toxin is not produced by bacteria in every infection, and not all bacteria carry the genes for the toxin. There are various types of superantigen toxin, each with different levels of virulence.

Environmental factors (cues for gene expression) affect how much of the toxin is expressed by bacteria. This determines if and how much toxin is expressed and whether or not TSS will develop from a wound infection.

To answer your question, TSS is rare because not all wound infections meet the criteria for the expression of the class of superantigen toxin responsible for TSS.

That helped a lot, thank you!