title: Genetic diversity of Propionibacterium acnes strains isolated from human skin in Japan and comparison with their distribution in Europe.
abstract: Propionibacterium acnes, a commensal of human skin, is also an opportunistic pathogen of common acne and certain infectious diseases. However, it is still not obvious which strain is pathogenic for a certain infectious disease, and investigations to characterize pathogenic strains using molecular typing methods such as MLST using several housekeeping genes have been undertaken. However, to date, such analysis has focused mainly on strains isolated from Europeans, and it is unclear whether the clonal distribution in other parts of the world is similar. Here, we analysed 50 strains of P. acnes from healthy humans and patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) in Japan and utilized MLST of seven housekeeping genes to study their clonal patterns. The MLST successfully typed the strains into five types, IA, IB1, IB2, II and III. Strains that belonged to types IA, IB and II were common on the human skin of both populations (Europe and Japan), but this study demonstrated what we believe to be the first association of type III strains with human skin, existing on the skin of both the AD and non-AD population. These results indicate the global existence of type III strains on human skin.
authors.affiliation: Department for Bioanalysis and Horizon Technologies, Microbiology Services, Health Protection Agency, London, UK.|Skin Microbe Laboratory, Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Izumo, Japan.
authors.forename: Itaru
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dekio
authors.affiliation: Department for Bioanalysis and Horizon Technologies, Microbiology Services, Health Protection Agency, London, UK.
authors.forename: Dunstan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rajendram
authors.affiliation: Skin Microbe Laboratory, Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Izumo, Japan.
authors.forename: Eishin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.affiliation: Department for Bioanalysis and Horizon Technologies, Microbiology Services, Health Protection Agency, London, UK.
authors.forename: Saheer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gharbia
authors.affiliation: Department for Bioanalysis and Horizon Technologies, Microbiology Services, Health Protection Agency, London, UK.
authors.forename: Haroun N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Shah
mesh_terms: D005060:Europe; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D006805:Human Experimentation; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D011425:Propionibacterium acnes / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology*; D017192:Skin Diseases, Bacterial / Q000382:microbiology