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Background: Candida albicans is known as part of human's skin normal flora; but simultaneously, is the most common opportunistic fungal pathogen of human which can cause a variety of infections including cutaneous candidiasis. Because of the importance of superficial infections like cutaneous candidiasis, we tried to use Ultraviolet B light as a method of phototherapy for inducing apoptosis in irradiated colonies of Candida albicans., Materials and Methods: The Ultraviolet B with the wavelength of 302 nanometer was used for irradiating the colonies of Candida albicans. For detecting the eventual apoptotic reactions, the DNA of irradiated colonies as well as control colonies were extracted and then were run in 1% agarose gel electrophoresis containing ethidium bromide to observe luminescent DNA bands., Results: Despite irradiating of Ultraviolet B to yeast cells, no abnormalities including DNA laddering bands or smears were detected in bands formed by total genomic DNA., Discussion: The applied irradiation protocol in this investigation was not successful to induce apoptotic reactions in Ultraviolet-exposed colonies. Maybe, Heat shock proteins as the important part of fungal protein pool, inhibit the inducing pathway of apoptosis in irradiated colonies of Candida albicans.

Candidiasis is a wide spread opportunistic fungal infectious disease which involves different parts of human body. Based on anatomic location, there are several kinds of candidiasis caused by opportunistic dimorphic fungus of Candida. Oral candidiasis as a common fungal mouth infection is divided into two groups of acute and chronic forms. Acute Pseudomembranous Candidiasis (thrush), Acute Erythematous Candidiasis (AEC), Chronic Erythematous Candidiasis (CEC), and Chronic Hyperplastic Candidiasis (CHC) are four types of oropharyngeal candidiasis. Age and risks factors are two important variables that change the incidence rate of candidiasis. Thrush is the most common pediatric oral candidiasis. Parental consciousness, appropriate diet, proper hygiene, accurate diagnosis, well management and definitive treatment are required to prevent, to control and to treat pediatric fungal infection of thrush. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen which causes urinary tract candidiasis in humans. In this research, we tried to find out the frequency of the Urinary Tract Infections associated with Candida albicans in patients who referred to Central Laboratory of Dr. Shariati Hospital, during 2 years (April 2006- April 2008). Materials and Methods: According to the archived recorded data, the questionnaires were filled out. At the end of this retrospective research, the statistical tests of Chi Square were operated through SPSS software version 15. Outcomes: The results showed that, the Urinary Tract Infections associated with Candida albicans included 6.8% of patients. The remaining 93.2% of Urinary Tract Infections had related to bacterial pathogens. Conclusions: The statistical analyses confirmed the significant association between Urinary Tract Infections caused by Candida albicans and female gender (P<0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]