Adherence of Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis to epithelial cells correlates with fungal cell surface carbohydrates

Abstract

Many studies have described the adherence of Candida albicans to epithelial cells but little is known about Candida parapsilosis adhesion and its role in host cell surface recognition. This study was designed to evaluate the correlation between the adherence of 20 C. albicans and 12 C. parapsilosis strains to human buccal epithelial cells and the expression of fungal cell surface carbohydrates using lectin histochemistry. Adherence assays were carried out by incubating epithelial cells in yeast suspensions (10(7) cells ml(-1) ) and peroxidase conjugated lectins (Con A, WGA, UEA I and PNA at 25 μg ml(-1) ) were used for lectin histochemistry. The results showed that adherence was overall greater for C. albicans than for C. parapsilosis (P < 0.01) and that the individual strain differences correlated with a high content of cell surface α-l-fucose residues as indicated by the UEA I staining pattern. Based on the saccharide specificity of the lectins used, these results suggest that l-fucose residues on cell surface glycoconjugates may represent recognition molecules for interactions between the yeast strain studied and the host (r = 0.6985, P = 0.0045). In addition, our results indicated the presence of α-d-glucose/α-d-mannose, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine/N-acetylneuraminic acid and D-galactose/N-acetyl-D-galactosamine in fungal cell wall.

In vitro adherence of Candida albicans isolated from patients with chronic periodontitis

“…However, Lima-Neto, et al 14 (2009) showed a higher affinity of C. albicans for epithelial cells than C. parapsilosis , which is in accordance with Repentigny, et al 24 (2000). Although only C. albicans were evaluated in the present study, the findings of the present study show that C. albicans may also be related to chronic periodontal disease, as its adherence was significantly higher.…”

Adhesins inCandida parapsilosis: Understudied players in virulence

“…16,17 This difference could be explained due to the presence of more a-L-fucose residues in the C. albicans cell wall relative to other speices. 18 Interestingly, despite the fact that C. parapsilosis is known to be more a more frequent cause of disease in low birth weight newborns, Falgier et al found that C. parapsilosis showed little capacity to adhere to primary immature human enterocytes compared with C. albicans. 19 Bertini and coworkers previously showed that C. parapsilosis and C. orthopsilosis have similar adhesion capacities to human buccal epithelial cells, in contrast the third member of the C. parapsilosis sensu lato species complex, C. metapsilosis, which displayed a significantly lower adhesive affinity.…”

Oral candidal carriage and species identification among betel quid chewers and oral submucous fibrosis patients

“…[26] The earlier in-vitro studies have reported C. albicans to have greater adhesion to oral epithelial cells followed by C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis. [27,28] The presence of more α-Lfucose remnants promotes greater adhesion of C. albicans. [27] C. albicans is major isolate in healthy subjects on the tongue and buccal mucosa in the present study is in consonance with previous observations.…”