[Candida albicans: the relationship between morphotypes and in-vitro adhesivity to the oral mucosa cells of HIV-positive and AIDS patients. I].

Background: The significant frequency of oropharyngeal candidiasis due to C. albicans in HIV-infected and AIDS patients and the undoubted differences in pathogenicity among strains, lead us to study whether a possible correlation exists between the phenotypic characteristics of the fungal strain and the blastospores adhesivity to the human buccal epithelial cells.

Methods: From 203 oro-pharyngeal swabs of HIV-infected patients, 133 C.

[Candida albicans morphotypes and in vitro adhesivity to cells of the human oral mucosa in HIV-positive and AIDS patients after exposure of blastospores to fluconazole. II].

Background: Oro-pharyngeal candidosis is a frequently initial clinical manifestation of HIV infection and the adhesive properties of Candida spp. represent a very important pathogenicity factor.

Methods: In this study the adhesivity rate of Candida albicans to the oral epithelial cells of 33 HIV-positive patients and 12 healthy volunteers, have been assessed before and after the exposure of blastospores to inhibitory concentrations of fluconazole, in relation to 11 morphotypes obtained from 13 C.

Morphotypes of Candida albicans and their associations with underlying diseases and source of samples.

The morphotyping method was applied to differentiate a series of 276 Candida albicans strains recovered from hospitalized patients, by using a three-digit code based on the characteristics of the fringe outgrowth. By this scheme 32 different morphotypes were identified. An 86% reproducibility was achieved.