Biotyping of Propionibacterium acnes isolated from normal human facial skin

Biochemical and serological characteristics of 128 strains of Propionibacterium acnes isolated from the facial skin of healthy Japanese volunteers were compared with the three standard strains of the American Type Culture Collection, ATCC 6919, 11827, and 11828. Accordingly, the isolated strains of P. acnes were classified into five biotypes (B1 to B5) on the basis of fermentation tests of ribose, erythritol, and sorbitol. Two serotypes were distinguished by the agglutination test. P. acnes belonging to serotype I had galactose as a cell wall sugar, whereas those of serotype II lacked galactose. The strains of serotype I were distributed among all five biotypes (B1 to B5); however, those of serotype II consisted only of one biotype (B2). A term "sero-biotype" was introduced to differentiate and carefully classify the isolates. The predominant sero-biotypes differed with the individual and region of the facial skin. In general, strains of sero-biotype IB1, IB3, IB4, and IIB2 were more frequently isolated than those of sero-biotype IB2 and IB5. Thus, for routine assay work, serotyping of P. acnes as based on erythritol and sorbitol fermentation is both practical and applicable.