Acid-Fast Bacteria in Scleroderma and Morphea

A bacteriologic and histologic study of the skin of six consecutive patients with generalized scleroderma and three patients with localized scleroderma (morphea) was undertaken to determine if acid-fast bacteria could be demonstrated and cultured. Cultures were positive in seven cases for an intermittently acid-fast, gram-positive, pleomorphic organism most closely resembling the bacterium first isolated from scleroderma in 1947 by Wuerthele-Caspé. In addition, rare acid-fast organisms could be detected in Fite-Faraco stained tissue sections from four of the scleroderma patients, and from two of those with morphea. The possibility that this type of organism is etiologic in both the localized and systemic forms of scleroderma should be considered, at least until the pathogenicity of this microbe is more fully clarified.