Studies on Virulence Factors of Candida Albicans

Candida albicans is the most common human fungal pathogen. Healthy people may acquire superficial infections of the skin and mucous membranes. However, immunocompromised individuals may acquire fatal systemic infections. This work aimed to study some of the virulence factors of C. albicans.A total of 250 clinical specimens comprising 105 oral and 145 vaginal swabs collected from neonates and leukemic children and vaginally infected women, respectively. from the collected specimens 150 samples yielded six types of yeast isolates. The most frequently isolated yeast, which represented 58 % was C. albicans,while C. famata and C. tropicalis represented 12 % and 11.8 % of the isolates, respectively. C. parapsilosis and C. dubliniensis represented 8.7 % and 6 % of the isolates, respectively. The least frequently isolated yeast was Cryptococcus neoformans and represented 4 % of the isolates. Beside the clinical isolates, five commensal C. albicans isolates were obtained from the buccal cavity of healthy volunteers and were used as control in the study.The yeast isolates were identified to the species level by cultural and morphological characteristics after growth on SDA media, the ability to form germ tubes and the growth on cornmeal Tween 80 agar media. The identification of the isolates was confirmed by biochemical test using API 20C Aux system and by PCR technique using universal and species-specific primers