Exhaustive analysis of fungal populations from patients with oral candidiasis
Objectives: There is increasing interest in oral hygiene of elderly persons, who typically experience the various oral mucosal diseases such as oral candidiasis. Several studies reported that oral candidiasis is closely associated with changes in the oral fungal flora and is caused primarily by Candida species present in the oral mucosa. Identification of fungal flora at the species level may be useful to initiate early and appropriate treatment of patients. Conventional methods used to identify fungal flora are time-consuming and not always conclusive. However, molecular genetic analysis of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of ribosomal DNA is rapid, reproducible and simple to perform. In this study, we investigated the fungal flora from patients with oral candidiasis and the change in fungal flora before/after treatment for oral candidiasis by using polymerization chain reaction (PCR) of length polymorphism of ITS1-5.8S r RNA-ITS2 region.
Methods: Twenty-seven patients with oral candidiasis and 12 with healthy controls were studied. Oral swabs taken from tongue and oral rinse were examined for (1) fungal species diversity by PCR of length polymorphism of ITS1-5.8S rRNA-ITS2 region; (2) quantification of the fungal populations by real-time PCR.
Results: Compared with controls, patients with oral candidiasis showed significantly higher numbers and volume of fungus. The fungal populations from both patients with oral candidiasis and controls were composed predominantly of Candida albicans. However, previously-unidentified fungi (the length of PCR amplicon: 567 and 669 bp) was detected in only patients with oral candidiasis. In addition, this fungus has almost disappeared after treatment for oral candidiasis.
Conclusions: These results suggest that particular unidentified fungi might be involved in the pathogenesis of oral candidiasis. Further studies including nucleotide sequence of the amplicon and isolation of the targeting fungus are needed to identify and characterize a novel virulent fungal species.
Division: Japanese Division Meeting
Meeting:2012 Japanese Division Meeting (Niigata, Japan) Location: Niigata, Japan
Year: 2012 Final Presentation ID: Abstract Category|Abstract Category(s):Scientific Program
Authors
Ieda, Shinsuke
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)
Furukawa, Sachiko
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)
Yamashita, Yoshihisa
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka, N/A, Japan
)
Nakamura, Seiji
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)
Moriyama, Masafumi
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)
Takeshita, Toru
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka, N/A, Japan
)
Hayashida, Jun-nosuke
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)
Shinozaki, Shoichi
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)
Tanaka, Akihiko
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)
Maehara, Takashi
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)
Ohyama, Keiko
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)
Yoshiaki, Kubo
( Kyushu University, Fukuoka Prefecture, N/A, Japan
)