Table of Contents
What is the morphology of Propionibacterium?
Morphology: Pleomorphic, branched and unbranched rods, coccoid forms, or bifid, but they are not filamentous.
Is Propionibacterium acnes Gram-positive or negative?
Propionibacterium acnes is a gram-positive human skin commensal that prefers anaerobic growth conditions and is involved in the pathogenesis of acne (Kirschbaum and Kligman, 1963).
Is P acnes commensal?

SUMMARY. Propionibacterium acnes is known primarily as a skin commensal. However, it can present as an opportunistic pathogen via bacterial seeding to cause invasive infections such as implant-associated infections.
Where is P acnes found?
Propionibacterium acnes is a Gram-positive bacterium that forms part of the normal flora of the skin, oral cavity, large intestine, the conjunctiva and the external ear canal.
What color is Propionibacterium acnes?
Background/purpose: Red fluorescence of the face induced by ultraviolet light is thought to be due to Propionibacterium acnes. However, recently there are reports correlating this red fluorescence with the amount of facial sebum secretion.
Is Propionibacterium acnes aerobic or anaerobic?

Propionibacterium acnes is a facultative anaerobic Gram-positive rod, abundant on the human skin, and mainly associated with the sebaceous glands of the shoulder and axilla (1).
What is the shape of Propionibacterium acnes?
Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) is a ubiquitous, slow growing, rod-shaped, non-spore forming, Gram-positive anaerobe (Figure 2) found across body sites, including sebaceous follicles of the face and neck (Funke et al., 1997; Grice and Segre, 2011; Findley and Grice, 2014).
Is P. acnes the same as C. acnes?
C. acnes, formerly called P. acnes, is the bacteria that, if overpopulated, can settle into sebaceous glands in your skin and trigger your body’s inflammatory response system. This is what causes the red, sometimes painful pimples you get when you have an acne breakout.
What causes P acne?
Propionibacterium acnes Infection P. acnes is a gram-positive commensal bacterium that causes acne on the skin. P. acnes releases lipase that produces fatty acids by digesting sebum, creating inflammation of the skin.
What causes P acne bacteria?
Cascade of chemicals The airless environment causes the bacterium, Propionibacterium acnes, to turn sebum – an oily matter found in the skin – into fatty acids that activate inflammation in nearby skin cells.
What causes P. acnes?
Does everyone have P. acnes bacteria?
Researchers have long believed that Propionibacterium acnes causes acne. But these bacteria are plentiful on everyone’s skin and yet not everyone gets acne, or experiences it to the same degree.
Which bacteria causes cystic acne?
The anaerobic bacterium Propionibacterium acnes is believed to play an important role in the pathophysiology of the common skin disease acne vulgaris.
Are P. acnes and C acnes the same?
This review provides results of the most recent biochemical and genomic investigations that led to the new taxonomic classification of P. acnes renamed Cutibacterium acnes (C. acnes), and to the better characterisation of its phylogenetic cluster groups.
How does P. acnes cause inflammation?
What causes P. acnes bacteria?
What is the role of Propionibacterium acnes in causing acne?
Propionibacterium acnes Infection acnes is a gram-positive commensal bacterium that causes acne on the skin. P. acnes releases lipase that produces fatty acids by digesting sebum, creating inflammation of the skin.
Is P. acnes harmful?
P. acnes is a benign skin bacterium which can help the skin by stopping harmful bacteria getting into the pores.
How do you treat P acne?
P. acnes is highly susceptible to a wide range of antibiotics, including beta-lactams, quinolones, clindamycin, and rifampin, although resistance to clindamycin is increasing. Treatment requires a combination of surgery and a prolonged antibiotic treatment regimen to successfully eliminate the remaining bacteria.
What antibiotic covers P. acnes?
Penicillin and cephalosporins are effective against clinical P. acnes infection and biofilm in vitro. Combination antibiotic therapy with rifampin and daptomycin may further increase the clinical efficacy of treatment.