Partial purification and characterization of biological effects of a lipid toxin produced by Mycobacterium ulcerans

Organisms in the genus Mycobacterium cause a variety of human diseases. One member of the genus, M. ulcerans, causes a necrotizing skin disease called Buruli ulcer. Buruli ulcer is unique among mycobacterial diseases in that the organisms at the site of infection are extracellular and there is little acute inflammatory response. Previous literature reported the presence of a toxin in the culture supernatant of M. ulcerans which causes a cytopathic effect on the mouse fibroblast cell line L929 in which the adherent cells round up and detach from the tissue culture plate. Here we report partial purification of a lipid toxin from the culture supernatant of M. ulcerans which is capable of causing the cytopathic effect on L929 cells. We also show that this cytopathic effect is a result of cytoskeletal rearrangement. The M. ulcerans toxin does not cause cell death but instead arrests cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle.