[Microbiological properties of M. porcinum isolated from a patient with impairments in IL-12/IFN-gamma pathway].

PURPOSE: Mycobacterium porcinum has been successfully isolated from the patient with abnormal signal transduction pathway of IL12/IFN-gamma. The properties of each bacterium were determined by conventional identification methods, DNA sequencing analysis and MIC assay. MATERIALS AND METHODS: M. porcinum was isolated 7 times from 1996 to 2007 from cervical lymph node, axillary lymph nodes, inguinal lymph node, brachial lymph node and site of a tumor of the patient. In another occasion, mycobacteria were isolated from lavage fluid of the endoscope in routine inspection. Using these mycobacteria, M. porcinum (ATCC33776) and M. fortuitum (ATCC6841), the conventional identification method and MIC assay were carried out. For analyses of the DNA sequencing (rpoB, dnaJ and hsp65), the ATCC type strain of mycobacteria (11 strains) which are closely related to M. porcinum were also used. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: DNA sequencing analyses of the 7 samples isolated from the patient, were concurrently identical in 3 different genes. Drug susceptibility test showed that 7 isolates had no marked change. In conventional identification analyses, M. porcinum (ATCC33776), M. fortuitum (ATCC6841), and M. porcinum that were isolated in 1996, were able to grow at 42 degrees C. However, 6 isolates that were isolated after 1999, did not grow at 42 degrees C. The colony detectable days of these 7 strains changed from 3 to 7. Over the time, the morphology of each colony changed from smooth to rough. Though the initial isolate had the ability to utilize mannitol, the later 4 isolates had no such ability.