Filterable forms of Nocardia: a preferential site of infection in the mouse brain.

Filterable forms of Nocardia (i.e., filterable nocardiae) are characterized as spherical structures containing many granules.

Accumulation of acid-fast lipochrome bodies in glial cells of the midbrain nigral lesion in Parkinson's disease.

To confirm or refute the proposed link between nocardiae and Parkinson's disease (PD), we investigated the presence of acid-fast spherical structures similar to filterable nocardiae at the midbrain nigral lesions of three patients with PD. Many clusters of acid-fast lipochrome bodies were dense around blood vessels in the two patients with Hoehn and Yahr stage II and III PD. These clusters were present in the vicinity of melanin-pigmented neurons in the three PD patients studied.

Tinctorial properties of spherical bodies in broth cultures of Nocardia asteroides GUH-2.

In yeast extract-supplemented brain heart infusion (BHI) broth cultures of Nocardia asteroides GUH-2, many spherical bodies (SBs) were frequently seen nearby filamentous cells. They showed no gram-positivity when Gram stain was applied. When acridine orange stain was applied, many of them showed different green fluorescence from bright orange fluorescence of the filamentous nocardiae under ultraviolet light.

Acid-fastness of Nocardia asteroides GUH-2 cultured in brain heart infusion broth supplemented with paraffin.

Nocardia asteroides GUH-2 was not acid-fast when grown in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth. When grown in BHI broth supplemented with paraffin, many filamentous cells showed acid-fastness after treatment with 1% acid-alcohol as the decolorizing agent. When treated with 3% acid-alcohol, filamentous cells were not acid-fast.

Circulating antibody to Nocardia in the serum of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Nocardia is a genus of aerobic Gram-positive bacteria which forms filamentous cells that fragmented into rod-shaped or coccoid elements or L-forms. According to the literature N. asteroides causes encephalitis with parkinsonian features, and it may be an unknown etiologic agent causing encephalitis with a parkinsonian syndrome.