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Fifty-eight patients with acne were studied in regard to the microbial flora of the scalp, forehead, cheek, anterior nares, and open and closed comedones. Males carried higher numbers of aerobic bacteria and Pityrosporum at all sites. Patients with inflammatory acne also supported larger populations of these organisms in comparison to those with dominantly comedonal disease. Corynebacterium acnes density was not clearly affected by sex or type of disease. Group II C. acnes occurred most frequently in the nose and in comedones. Greater densities were found in patients with inflammatory disease. Bacteriophage against group I C. acnes was recovered from all but three patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-three newborn infants with anaerobic bacteremia were seen during a 3 1/2-year period, an incidence of 1.8 cases per 1,000 live births, and 26% of all cases of neonatal bacteremia. Clinical manifestations of neonatal anaerobic bacteremia were indistinguishable from other causes of neonatal sepsis. Prolonged rupture of membranes, maternal amnionitis, prematurity, fetal distress, foul odor at birth and respiratory difficulty were the most commonly associated conditions. Although all infants were ill appearing at or shortly after birth, only one death occurred. In our experience, anaerobic bacteremia in the newborn infant may be self-limited with a favorable prognosis regardless of antimicrobial therapy. Anaerobic pathogens, however, may occasionally be associated with serious perinatal morbidity and mortality. Anaerobic cultures employing special media should be performed routinely in all neonates with suspected sepsis, particularly when aerobic cultures have been negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferredoxin from Clostridium pasteurianum which is characterized by two clusters containing four sulfur-linked iron atoms each, was studied by Mößbauer and electron spin resonance spectroscopy. The iron of oxidized ferredoxin is high-spin Fe(III) (S = 5/2) coupled antiparallel magnetically as concluded from the magnitude of the quadrupole splitting and its slight temperature dependence. Thus the net spin of the cluster is S = 0. This explains why no magnetic hyperfine splitting was observed in the Mößbauer absorption spectrum of oxidized ferredoxin at 4.2 K. The observation of at least two quadrupole doublets with a ratio of intensities deviating from unity points to a slight inequivatence of the ligand field symmetry of the individual iron atoms. Reduction of oxidized, ferredoxin leads to an uptake of one electron per cluster. The net electron spin of each cluster of reduced ferredoxin is thus S = ½. Spin-spin coupling of both the clusters prevents the appearance of a magnetic hyperfine splitting at low temperature. In an external magnetic field of 20 kG the coupling is removed and a hyperfine structure is observed. Under the conditions of X-band electron spin resonance spectroscopy, i.e. in a magnetic field of 3.5 kG, the spin-spin coupling is not totally removed. Therefore, an anisotropic 7-line spectrum originating from a system with S = 1, is observed. Under chemical conditions producing partly reduced ferredoxin a 2-line spectrum from the uncoupled S = ½ systems is also found. It indicates axial symmetry of the innermolecular electric field, Mößbauer spectroscopy enabled the detection of various amounts of non-cluster iron in samples of oxidized and reduced ferredoxin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of the total sterol content has been made of a yeast strain during aerobic adaptation. Transmethylation occurs principally at the 4-demethylsterol level, but conditions were obtained wherein a small fraction of the transmethylations were with 4&aalpha;-methyl precursors. A Δ7-Zymostenol has been tentatively identified as a product previously unreported in yeast. Esterification was observed in all sterol intermediates and products. Cell-flee cyclization of 2,3-epoxy-22-methylene squalene to 24-methylene lanosterol occurs with yeast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies were made to determine the effects of hexachlorophene on aerobic bacteria of normal human skin. A test group of adults exposed their toe webs to the exaggerated use of a detergent containing 3% hexachlorophene. A control group followed the same regimen with a similar detergent containing no hexachlorophene. A membrane filter culture technique was used to make semiquantitative and qualitative estimations of the skin bacteria present before and after detergent usage. Both groups of subjects had a significant decline in numbers of cutaneous diphtheroids upon detergent usage. The test subjects showed significantly decreased densitites of staphylococci accompanied by significantly increased numbers of Gram-negative bacilli, a trend not observed among the control subjects. When coagulase-negative staphylococci were inhibited, there resulted an emergence of the Enterobacter-Klebsiella and Pseudomonas groups of Gram-negative bacilli on a moist skin area of adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative study of the microflora of 5 open and 5 closed comedones in each of 15 acne patients yielded anaerobic diphtheroids in 92 percent of lesions at a geometric mean density of 8.2 × 104 organisms per lesion. Open comedones (blackheads) contained higher numbers of yeasts and aerobic bacteria than closed ones (whiteheads). Study of individual comedones yields no more information than pooled samples. An association was found between severe acne and the incidence and density of Coryrnebacterium acnes group II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method for the isolation of anaerobic bacteria from endodontic specimens under Continuous anaerobiosis is described. A mobile anaerobe unit supplies a gentle stream of oxygen-free gas over the tooth when the bacteriologic sample is taken. The paper-points are then, under oxygen-free gas, immediately transferred to prereduced, anaerobically sterilized roll tubes. The different isolated anaerobic bacteria are typed with biochemical tests, antibiotic susceptibility testing and gas chromatographic analysis of volatile fatty acids and alcohols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An anaerobic strain of corynebacteria resembling Corynebacterium anaerobicum was cultured in a fermentor at constant pH. The growth medium was a glucose-proteose-peptone broth. Active hyaluronidase was liberated into the extra-cellular medium during growth as long as glucose was present in the medium. The pH optimum of the enzyme was between pH 5.0 and 6.2. The enzyme was stable between pH 5.0 and 9.4 and it was found to be heat labile. No gelatinolytic, caseinolytic, nor aminopeptidase activity of the extracellular medium of cultures of this strain could be demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. A stopped-flow technique was used to study the anaerobic reduction of fungal laccase B by hydroquinone, ascorbate and Fe(CN)4-6. The reactions were followed by measurements of the intensity of absorption bands at 610 and 330 nm, related to a one- and a two-electron acceptor, respectively. 2. The experiments confirmed earlier results indicating a second-order reduction of the 610-nm chromophore. The reduction of the 330-nm chromophore was found to be constant with the concept that the rate is limited by an intramolecular step. A model for the anaerobic reduction of laccase was formulated. 3. The effect of F- on the anaerobic kinetics implies that this inhibitory anion changes the rate constant of the rate-limiting step. 4. The reduction of the 330-nm chromophore, as it appears under anaerobic conditions, cannot be part of the normal catalytic mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide range of different strains of anaerobic coryneforms and classical propionibacteria have been surveyed for some of their macrocytostimulant effects (included under this term are the ability to increase the rate of phagocytic uptake of carbon after intravenous injection of the latter into mice, ability to stimulate an increase in lysosomal hydrolases and ability to exert directly a chcmotactic stimulus on macrophages) and their ability to increase humoral and cellular immunity when admixed with an immunogen. Of twenty-one strains of anaerobic coryneforms tested, fifteen strains were able to produce an increase of the phagocytic index in mice of at least 50 per cent. Micro-organisms that were effective in these tests occurred in each of the four main serological groups. Although no single serological group showed outright superiority in causing an increase of K, three of the five strains which had highest activity belonged to serological group I. Four organisms representing the ‘classical’ propionibacteria were also tested, but none of these caused an increase of phagocytic index in mice. Many of the strains that stimulated a rise in phagocytic index also caused an increase in the weight of the spleen measured at 10 days after injection and a moderately good correlation was apparent between the magnitude of the two effects, Tests in mice and chickens for an adjuvant action on serum levels of antibody failed to show any enhancement of primary responses, although a barely significant elevation of the secondary response in the mouse was observed. In the guinea-pig, a clear adjuvant effect on the levels of serum antibody in a primary response was observed. However, no evidence could be obtained that any of several anaerobic coryneforms was able to enhance cell-mediated hypersensitivity, as shown by delayed-type skin tests or corneal reactions. A study of the histological responses to a footpad injection of various anaerobic coryneforms (in water-oil emulsion with ovalbumin) showed that the regional (popliteal) node underwent a considerable expansion of the lymphoid-cell content of the paracortical (thymus-dependent) area. This was accompanied by extensive sinus plugging by lymphocytes and endothelial hypertrophy of post-capillary venules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chemotactic factor has been isolated from cultures and culture filtrates of many members of the group of anaerobic coryneform bacteria which includes various strains of Corynebacterium parvum. This factor attracts guinea-pig and mouse peritoneal exudate macrophages specifically and fails to attract either human blood neutrophils or guinea-pig peritoneal exudate neutrophils. Its activity is serum-independent. It is non-dialysable and destroyed by boiling. There is strong, positive correlation between the capacity of individual strains of anaerobic coryneforms to produce this macrophage chemotactic factor and the capacity of the same micro-organisms, when injected in vivo into mice, to enhance the clearance of carbon from the circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corynebacterium acnes was found to be a resident member of the skin flora at 18 different sites. Great individual variation in numbers of recovered organisms occurred; chance factors in the recovery technique probably accounted for this variation. The minority of patients studied had very low numbers of C. acnes at all sites studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]