ReviewEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2019
A review of microscopy-based evidence for the association of Propionibacterium acnes biofilms in degenerative disc disease and other diseased human tissue.
Review in European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evidence for infection in intervertebral disc degeneration: a systematic review.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2022Pooled it
- Cytokine Patterns as Predictors of Antibiotic Treatment Effect in Chronic Low Back Pain with Modic Changes: Subgroup Analyses of a Randomized Trial (AIM Study).Journal of pain research · 2023Trial
- Oedema on STIR modified the effect of amoxicillin as treatment for chronic low back pain with Modic changes-subgroup analysis of a randomized trial.European radiology · 2021Trial
- Clinical effect modifiers of antibiotic treatment in patients with chronic low back pain and Modic changes - secondary analyses of a randomised, placebo-controlled trial (the AIM study).BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2020Trial
- Intradiscal linezolid (PP353) treatment for chronic low back pain associated with Modic change type 1: an international, first-in-human, randomised, sham procedure-controlled, double-blind, phase 1b clinical trial.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- Review
- Gut microbiome dysbiosis is associated with lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis in symptomatic patients.JOR spine · 2024Article
- Comparison of Disc Degeneration between Pyogenic Spondylitis and Noninfected Lumbar Spondylosis: A Multicenter Retrospective Study with Propensity Score Matching.Spine surgery and related research · 2024Article
- Changes in the composition of the fecal metabolome and gut microbiota contribute to intervertebral disk degeneration in a rabbit model.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2024Article
- No genetic causal relationship between acne and prostate cancer through Mendelian randomization combined with meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Article
- Review
- Review
- Association between periodontitis and disc structural failure in older adults with lumbar degenerative disorders: A prospective cohort study.BMC surgery · 2023Article
- Review
- Prostate Infiltration by Treg and Th17 Cells as an Immune Response toInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Pathological and Tissue-Based Molecular Investigation of Granulomas in Cichlids Reared as Ornamental Fish.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Gut-disc axis: A cause of intervertebral disc degeneration and low back pain?European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2022Review
- Propionibacterium acnes overabundance in gastric cancer promote M2 polarization of macrophages via a TLR4/PI3K/Akt signaling.Gastric cancer : official journal of the International Gastric Cancer Association and the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association · 2021Article
- Subclinical infection can be an initiator of inflammaging leading to degenerative disk disease: evidence from host-defense response mechanisms.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2021Article
- Chronic low back pain, Modic changes and low-grade virulent infection: efficacy of antibiotic treatment.Future science OA · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 11 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeRecent research shows an increasing recognition that organisms not traditionally considered infectious in nature contribute to disease processes. Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) is a gram-positive, aerotolerant anaerobe prevalent in the sebaceous gland-rich areas of the human skin. A ubiquitous slow-growing organism with the capacity to form biofilm, P. acnes, recognized for its role in acne vulgaris and medical device-related infections, is now also linked to a number of other human diseases. While bacterial culture and molecular techniques are used to investigate the involvement of P. acnes in such diseases, definitive demonstration of P. acnes infection requires a technique (or techniques) sensitive to the presence of biofilms and insensitive to the presence of potential contamination. Fortunately, there are imaging techniques meeting these criteria, in particular, fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence coupled with confocal laser scanning microscopy, as well as immunohistochemistry.
methodsOur literature review considers a range of microscopy-based studies that provides definitive evidence of P. acnes colonization within tissue from a number of human diseases (acne vulgaris, degenerative disc and prostate disease and atherosclerosis), some of which are currently not considered to have an infectious etiology. RESULTS/
conclusionWe conclude that P. acnes is an opportunistic pathogen with a likely underestimated role in the development of various human diseases associated with significant morbidity and, in some cases, mortality. As such, these findings offer the potential for new studies aimed at understanding the pathological mechanisms driving the observed disease associations, as well as novel diagnostic strategies and treatment strategies, particularly for degenerative disc disease. These slides can be retrieved under Electronic Supplementary Material.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.