Gentamycin inhibits the growth of Malassezia pachydermatis in culture.
BACKGROUND
Malassezia pachydermatis is a yeast of importance in both veterinary and human medicine.


OBJECTIVE
To know if M. pachydermatis grow on mycological media with high concentrations of gentamycin.


METHODS
Twenty M. pachydermatis strains were streaked on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar plates with different concentrations of gentamycin.


RESULTS
All isolates were inhibited when high concentrations of gentamycin were added.


CONCLUSIONS
The use of plates with high concentrations of gentamycin can lead to some important misdiagnoses: firstly, false-negative cultures, and secondly, an erroneous classification of M. pachydermatis as a lipid-dependent species. Moreover, all of this could be useful in two therapeutic fields: i) in animals, topical gentamycin could be an efficacious treatment for a disease such as external otitis in dogs; ii) in humans, we hypothesize that gentamycin could be regarded as a possible therapy ("antibiotic-lock") for catheter-associated Malassezia spp. infections.
Servicio de Microbiología, Hospital Royo Villanova, Zaragoza, Spain. carmenaspiroz@gmail.com
Carmen
C
Aspíroz
Yolanda
Y
Gilaberte
Antonio
A
Rezusta
Teun
T
Boekhout
M A Carmen
MA
Rubio
D000818:Animals; D003470:Culture Media / Q000494:pharmacology; D003881:Dermatomycoses / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D004285:Dogs / Q000382:microbiology; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D005839:Gentamicins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D008290:Malassezia / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010032:Otitis Externa / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary
D003470:Culture Media; D005839:Gentamicins