Murine Peritoneal Macrophage Response to Colonial Phenotypes of Candida Albicans
The ability of Candida albicans to change from yeast to mycelial form has been associated with pathogenicity of the organism. High frequently switching is a phenomenon that occurs spontaneously and has been documented in clinical isolates from oral and vaginal candidiasis. Because switched phenotypes have a propensity to form hyphae more readily than the parent type, switching may enhance opportunistic capabilities for eluding or resisting macrophage surveillance. The focus of this investigation was to test murine peritoneal macrophage response to two different phenotypes of the same strain of C. albicans. Heat-killed preparations of the parent and a UV-induced, switched phenotype (S-5) were tested for their capacity to prime macrophages for enhanced respiratory burst and interleukin-1 (IL-1) secretion. The results of this investigation demonstrate that murine peritoneal macrophages respond to priming by the parent phenotype to a different degre than to the S-5 varian of C. albicans 3153A.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations