Chemical characterization of organisms isolated from leprosy patients

Abstract

Chemical analyses of the cell walls of organisms isolated in various parts of the world from cases of lepromatous and tuberculoid leprosy enable their assignment to one of the three genera: Corynebacterium, Mycobacterium, or Propionibacterium. One, bacterium 22M, remains unassigned. The combined chemical and enzymatic properties attributed to leprosy bacilli freshly harvested from lepromata are found collectively, but not individually, in these three genera.