INTRODUCTION Worldwide, Candida albicans is the most common Candida species implicated in bloodstream infections. However, the proportion of non-albicans bloodstream infections is increasing. Fluconazole resistance is known to be more common in non-albicans species, but is also reported in C. albicans. This retrospective study was performed to determine the species epidemiology of Candida blood...

Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is an important aspect of phagocyte-mediated host responses. Since phagocytes play a crucial role in the host response to Candida albicans, we examined the ability of Candida to modulate phagocyte ROS production. ROS production was measured in the murine macrophage cell line J774 and in primary phagocytes using luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence. J774...

The aim of our study was to evaluate the accuracy of the chromogenic media Albicans ID2® (bioMérieux, France) for the identification of Candida albicans among 330 yeast strains. All C. albicans (100) and C. dubliniensis (20) strains exhibited blue color when cultured on Albicans ID2®. However, the blue color was also exhibited by cultures of C. rugosa (30/30) and C. tropicalis (3/50) isolates.

BACKGROUND Candida species are normal commensal organisms of the mouth. However, they can cause oral mucosal and severe systemic infections in persons with reduced immune function, which is common in the very elderly. In post-disaster areas, the number of elderly residents rapidly increases due to the outflow of younger generations. Hence, we examined the prevalence of Candida albicans and non-...

background and purpose :candidiasis is a widespread fungal infection caused by different candida species. rapid identification of candida species in clinical laboratory is becoming increasingly important since the identification and discrimination of ethological agents for early treatment. we aimed at molecular identification of commonly candida species isolated from clinical samples by using b...

Results From a total of 887 isolates, Candida albicans remains a major pathogen accounted for 50.3%, followed by C. tropicalis(27.4%), C. parapsilosis (12.5%), C.guilliermondii (6%), C. glabrata (1.8%), C. krusei (0.23%), C. rugosa (0.23%), and unidentified species(1.6%). From a total of 103 C. albicans, amphotericin B MIC ranged from 0.016-1ug/ml whereas fluconazole MIC ranged were between 0.0...

BACKGROUND Candida albicans has been the most common cause of fungal bloodstream infections (BSIs) in intensive care units (ICUs); however, infections due to non-albicans Candida species have been increasing in prevalence. We examined factors associated with BSIs due to non-albicans Candida species, compared with C. albicans BSIs, in an ICU patient population. METHODS For our case-comparator ...

Stimulation of cells of the macrophage lineage is a crucial step in the sensing of yeasts by the immune system. Glycans present in both Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell walls have been shown to act as ligands for different receptors leading to different stimulating pathways, some of which need receptor co-involvement. However, among these ligand-receptor couples, none has been...

IL-17 is one of the key cytokines that stimulate host defense during a Candida infection. Several studies have demonstrated the capacity of Candida albicans to induce a Th17 response. Surprisingly, experiments employing live C. ablicans demonstrated a specific downregulation of host IL-17 secretion in human blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). By avoiding the direct contact of live C. albicans and ...

Oral epithelial cells are the first cells that interact with C. albicans during the establishment of oropharyngeal candidiasis. Following initial adhesion, C. albicans invades oral epithelial cells by inducing its own endocytosis and gains access to epithelial vacuolar compartments. Epithelial endocytic pathways are key innate immune mechanisms in host defense. We examined the trafficking of C....