Morphological Transformation of Candida albicans in Tissues of Mice.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
While studying the local tissue reaction in mice to injected cell suspensions of pathogenic fungi, it was observed that a morphological alteration occurred in the case of all Candida albicans strains studied. Within one hour after subcutaneous injection, the majority of cells of C. albicans had formed a short rudimentary pseudo-mycelium. With the exception of C. stellatoidea, yeast-like cells of other members of the genus Candida failed to exhibit these alterations under the same conditions. At later times considerable growth of the pseudomycelia of C. albicans was observed with septa formation. Species other than C. albicans and C. stellatoidea retained their typical yeast-like morphology. On the basis of the appearance of ingested cells with rudimentary pseudomycelia it was postulated that filamentation of C. albicans in vivo serves as a hindrance to ingestion by mouse phagocytes and that this "mechanical" hindrance would serve to favor survival of the fungus in the host. The validity of this postulation would indicate a significant role for these morphologically altered organisms in the pathogenesis of experimental moniliasis in the mouse.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: