Clonal diversity of Cutibacterium acnes (formerly Propionibacterium acnes) in prosthetic joint infections

Abstract

Prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) are rare but feared complications following joint replacement surgery. Cutibacterium acnes is a skin commensal that is best known for its role in acne vulgaris but can also cause invasive infections such as PJIs. Some phylotypes might be associated with specific diseases, and recently, a plasmid was detected that might harbour important virulence genes. In this study, we characterized C. acnes isolates from 63 patients with PJIs (n = 140 isolates) and from the skin of 56 healthy individuals (n = 56 isolates), using molecular methods to determine the phylotype and investigate the presence of the plasmid. Single-locus sequence typing and a polymerase chain reaction designed to detect the plasmid were performed on all 196 isolates. No statistically significant differences in sequence types were seen between the two study groups indicating that the C. acnes that causes PJIs originates from the patients own normal skin microbiota. Of the 27 patients with multiple tissue samples, 19 displayed the same sequence types among all their samples. Single-locus sequence typing identified different genotypes among consecutive C. acnes isolates from four patients with recurrent infections. The plasmid was found among 17 isolates distributed in both groups, indicating that it might not be a marker for virulence regarding PJIs. Patients presenting multiple sequence types in tissue samples may represent contamination or a true polyclonal infection due to C. acnes.

Keywords: Cutibacterium acnes; Plasmid; Propionibacterium acnes; Prosthetic joint infection; Single-locus sequence typing (SLST).