An in vitro evaluation of the adhesion of Candida species to oral and lung tissue cells.

The analysis of the adherence capacity of fungi to surfaces of both oral tissue and different tissues would be of interest in the fungal dissemination as an oral and systemic pathogen. We developed an in vitro adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-based assay technique to extract the cellular and fungal ATP separately, which allowed the quantitative evaluation of the adhesion of the yeast to monolayers of human gingival epithelial cells (GEC), gingival fibroblasts (GF) and pulmonary fibroblasts (PF). Seven oral isolates of Candida species (three of Candida albicans, three of Candida tropicalis and one of Candida glabrata) were used in the study. The adherent level of the Candida species varied depending on both the isolates and the cell origins, although all the Candida isolates had a significantly higher level of adherence to GEC than to GF except the single isolate of C. tropicalis. Whereas the adherent level of the five isolates to GEC was significantly higher than that to PF, the adherent level of the remaining two isolates of C. tropicalis to GEC was significantly lower than that to PF. These results suggest that candidal adherence to host tissue cells should be regulated in an isolate-dependent and cell-origin-dependent manner, and that the phenomena may be involved in the colonisation and/or dissemination of the fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]