Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Aerobic culture of anaerobic bacteria using antioxidants: a preliminary report

  • Article
  • Published:
European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Antioxidants have been shown to help the growth of anaerobic bacteria. We were able to grow six anaerobe species (including Fusobacterium necrophorum and Ruminococcus gravus) and seven aerobic species all aerobically in Schaedler agar tubes and agar plates with high doses of ascorbic acid and/or glutathione. This may deeply change strategies for culturing bacteria.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Gorbach SL (2005) Anaerobic bacteria—general concepts. In: Mandell GL, Bennett JE, Dolin R (eds) Mandell, Douglas and Bennett's principles and practice of infectious diseases, 6th edn. Elsevier Churchill Livingstone, Philadelphia, pp 1854–1863

    Google Scholar 

  2. Collins C, Petts D (2008) Culture methods for pathogenic anaerobes: a brief history. Biomed Sci 599–601

  3. Bousbia S, Papazian L, Saux P, Forel JM, Auffray JP, Martin C, Raoult D, LaScola B (2012) Repertoire of intensive care unit pneumonia microbiota. PLoS ONE 7:e32486

    Article  PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Fenollar F, Roux V, Stein A, Drancourt M, Raoult D (2006) Analysis of 525 Samples to determine the usefulness of PCR amplification and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene for diagnosis of bone and joint infections. J Clin Microbiol 44:1018–1028

    Article  PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Al Masalma, Lonjon M, Richet H, Dufour H, Roche PH, Drancourt M, Raoult D, Fournier PE (2012) Metagenomic analysis of brain abscesses identifies specific bacterial associations. Clin Infect Dis 54:202–210

  6. Barreau M, Pagnier I, LaScola B (2013) Improving the identification of anaerobes in the clinical microbiology laboratory through MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Anaerobe 123:5

    Google Scholar 

  7. La Scola B, Fournier PE, Raoult D (2011) Burden of emerging anaerobes in the MALDI-TOF and 16S rRNA gene sequencing era. Anaerobe 17:106–112

  8. Lagier JC, Armougom F, Million M, Hugon P, Pagnier I, Robert C, Bittar F, Fournous G, Gimenez G, Maraninchi M, Trape JF, Koonin EV, La Scola B, Raoult D (2012) Microbial culturomics: paradigm shift in the human gut microbiome study. Clin Microbiol Infect 18:1185–1193

  9. Singh S, Eldin C, Kowalczewska M, Raoult D (2012) Axenic culture of fastidious and intracellular bacteria. Trends Microbiol 21:92–99

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Seng P, Abat C, Rolain JM, Colson P, Lagier JC, Gouriet F, Fournier PE, Drancourt M, La Scola B, Raoult D (2013) Identification of rare pathogenic bacteria in a clinical microbiology laboratory: impact of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry. J Clin Microbiol 51:2182–2194

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the Méditerranée Infection Foundation for sponsoring this research.

Conflict of interest

There is a patent pending by Aix-Marseille Université regarding the use of high doses of ascorbic acid for anaerobe growth.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes (URMITE), UM63, CNRS 7278, IRD 198, Inserm 1095, Faculté de médecine, Aix Marseille Universite, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13385, Marseille, Cedex 05, France

    B. La Scola, S. Khelaifia, J.-C. Lagier & D. Raoult

Authors
  1. B. La Scola
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. Khelaifia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. J.-C. Lagier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. D. Raoult
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. Raoult.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

La Scola, B., Khelaifia, S., Lagier, JC. et al. Aerobic culture of anaerobic bacteria using antioxidants: a preliminary report. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 33, 1781–1783 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-014-2137-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-014-2137-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation