Importance of Propionibacterium acnes hemolytic activity in human intervertebral discs: A microbiological study
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Most patients with chronic lower back pain (CLBP) exhibit degenerative disc disease. Disc specimens obtained during initial therapeutic discectomies are often infected/colonized with Propionibacterium acnes, a Gram-positive commensal of the human skin. Although pain associated with infection is typically ascribed to the body's inflammatory response, the Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus was recently observed to directly activate nociceptors by secreting pore-forming α-hemolysins that disrupt neuronal cell membranes. The hemolytic activity of P. acnes in cultured disc specimens obtained during routine therapeutic discectomies was assessed through incubation on sheep-blood agar. The β-hemolysis pattern displayed by P. acnes on sheep-blood agar was variable and phylogroup-dependent. Their molecular phylogroups were correlated with their hemolytic patterns. Our findings raise the possibility that pore-forming proteins contribute to the pathogenesis and/or symptomology of chronic P. acnes disc infections and CLBP, at least in a subset of cases.
Source: PLoS ONE
Institutions: Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Central European Institute of Technology – Masaryk University, Rockefeller University, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Coventry (United Kingdom), Coventry University, Vanderbilt University, Aarhus University, Aston University
Language: English
Subfield: Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,382
Funders: Celgene, Coventry University
OpenAlex ID: W2903142750