Table 1.
Summary of the microorganisms isolated in 162 cases from 368 patient intervertebral disc specimens by anaerobic culture.
Fig 1.
Distribution of P. acnes colony counts in culture-positive disc tissue specimens.
Fig 2.
Visualization of bacterial biofilm in the disc tissue by CSLM and confirmation of P. acnes by FISH.
A. Three dimensional reconstructed CSLM image of biofilm bacteria stained with a DNA stain (SYTO9, green) in a disc tissue sample (#4, Table 2). B-C. The presence of P. acnes biofilms in this sample verified using FISH. Epifluorescence micrographs of a biofilm cluster showing red fluorescence from the CY5-labeled EUB338 general eubacterial probe (B) and green fluorescence from the CY3-labled P. acnes-specific probe (C). Co-localization of the red and green fluorescence indicates that all of the bacteria in this biofilm were P. acnes.
Table 2.
Characteristics of the disc samples evaluated by microscopic methods.
Fig 3.
Visualization of P. acnes biofilm in the disc tissue by use of FISH.
A. This color-combined image shows the “pocket” of green fluorescent P. acnes cells (biofilm) near the center right of the image (disc tissue sample #8, Table 2). The presence of P. acnes biofilms in this sample was verified using FISH. B-C. Red fluorescence is the general eubacterial probe (B) and green is the P. acnes probe (C). The B/C image is a zoom of A showing fluorescence from the red and green channels separately. Almost all of the cells in A are emitting both red and green fluorescence indicating that they are P. acnes.
Table 3.
Patient and clinical characteristics in relation to P. acnes positivity.