Elastase from Staphylococcus epidermidis

Abstract

WE report the discovery of an elastolytic enzyme secreted extracellularly by a variant of Staphylococcus epidermidis found on normal human skin. The 30 per cent incidence of this variant in our isolants of Staph. epidermidis, the most abundant organism on human skin, indicates that it is present in much larger numbers as part of the normal flora of a tissue than any other previously discovered elastase-producing micro-organism. The elastases are enzymes capable of digesting the scleroprotein, elastin, a component of mammalian connective tissues important in, for example, arteries, lung and skin. The screening of micro-organisms on human skin for elastase began as a search for the aetiology of perifollicular macular atrophy (Fig. 1), a skin disease characterized by a selective loss of orcein-staining elastic fibres around hair follicles, without loss of collagen or significant inflammation. The clinical features of this disease consist of white, atrophic 1–4 mm sized circular flat patches in the skin with a central hair follicle (unpublished work).