Skin and Wound Infection Models to Test Host-Pathogen Interactions and Evaluate Topical Antimicrobial Treatments.

There is a wide variety of models to study different aspects of infections such as cell lines, organoid cultures, ex vivo models, or even experiments with animals. Each of which mirrors a rising complexity level, and reflect the in vivo condition in humans to a varying degree. When infection models are used to test the therapeutic efficacy and tolerability of antimicrobials or antiseptics, the right choice of model is crucial to truly extract meaningful information and apply these findings to the in vivo circumstances in humans. In this chapter, we report on protocols for using infection models based on ex vivo human skin for the testing of antimicrobial formulations and antiseptics. We describe general protocols to create bacterial and viral infections and to extract and quantify the microorganisms. In addition, we describe the methods for the microscopical visualization of the ex vivo skin and wound infections.