title: Genotype distribution of Candida albicans strains associated with different conditions of vulvovaginal candidiasis, as revealed by microsatellite typing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare genotypes of Candida albicans strains causing different conditions of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) in Chinese women.
  
  
  METHODS
  C albicans strains were isolated from the vaginas of patients with different conditions of VVC. The genotypes of the strains were investigated based on single-strand conformation polymorphisms (SSCP) of the PCR amplified microsatellite locus CAI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 93 independent C albicans strains was isolated from patients with mild-to-moderate (n = 37) or severe (n = 56) VVC. Thirty of the patients enrolled suffered recurrent VVC. Twenty-six distinct genotypes tentatively designated as A to Z were identified from the 93 C albicans strains compared on the basis of their CAI SSCP patterns. The majority (72.0%) of the strains possessed genotypes A to D, which were similar in the CAI SSCP profiles and were designated as the dominant genotypes. The overall frequencies of the four dominant genotypes were 87.5% (49/56) and 48.6% (18/37; p<0.001) in the C albicans strains from patients with severe and mild-to-moderate VVC, respectively. The strains with the dominant genotypes occupied 83.3% (25/30) and 66.7% (42/63; p = 0.094) in the C albicans strains from patients with recurrent VVC and sporadic VVC, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The frequency of C albicans strains with the dominant genotypes (A to D) from patients with severe VVC was significantly higher than that from patients with mild-to-moderate VVC, implying that the CAI genotype distribution of C albicans strains correlates with the severity of VVC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing 100034, China.
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: F Y
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Q P
authors.initials: QP
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Z H
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: X P
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000235:genetics*; D002181:Candidiasis, Vulvovaginal / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008875:Middle Aged; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D012008:Recurrence; D014621:Vagina / Q000382:microbiology*