Fig. 1

Study design scheme. All of female Kunming mice were fed a normal diet throughout the experimental period. The strains (S. aureus CICC 21600 or Streptococcus lactis L16) were suspended in PBS and administrated into experimental mice. After pre-exposure L16 for 1 week, mice in the PL16 group were then orally administrated with S. aureus for 1 week and with PBS the following week. Mice in the TL16 group were subjected to S. aureus infection for 1 week and treated with L16 the following 2 weeks. In the Mod group, mice were orally infected with S. aureus for 1 week. The Con group remained oral administration of PBS instead of S. aureus or S. lactis L16 for 3 weeks