Incredibly, recent research has shown that the antimicrobial properties of honey in vitro are more than bactericidal because honey has also been shown to reduce bacterial pathogenicity. The ability of pathogenic microbes to cause diseases is partly due to the production of pathogenicity factors. S. aureus, for example, produces a range of disease-causing proteins, including catalase, hemolysins (a, b, g, and d), epidermolytic toxins, and enterotoxins. Alphatoxin (a-hemolysin) causes tissue damage during wound infections by creating pores in host cell membranes, allowing the discharge of low-molecular-weight compounds, and by inducing cytokine production and apoptosis.