Fluconazole susceptibility and genotypic heterogeneity of oral Candida albicans colonies from the patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy in China.
OBJECTIVE
To identify heterogeneity of Candida albicans (C. albicans) isolated from the population with cancer in China by using identification medium, subculture molecular typing, and antifungal susceptibility test.


METHODS
Oral cheek mucosal specimens from 52 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy were cultured on CHROMagar Candida plates for Candida identification. All the C. albicans colonies on the plates were subcultured and reconfirmed by API20C, then submitted to the antifungal drug susceptibility test with fluconazole and molecular typing using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR (RAPD) with primers RSD6 and RSD12.


RESULTS
54% (28/52) patients were oral yeast carriage in which C. albicans predominated. More than 7 C. albicans colonies were isolated from each of 12 patients (Group A), while less than 5 colonies were isolated from each of 16 patients (Group B). RSD6 and RSD12 were successful in eliciting 17 (A1-A17) and 2 (B1-B2) genotypes, respectively from among the 205 isolates. The two primers were combined to generate 21 genotypes. The C. albicans isolates obtained from the same patient and episode showed a diversity for fluconazole revealed by MIC50 and MIC90.


CONCLUSIONS
The heterogeneity of the C. albicans colonies isolated from the same patients can be detected. C. albicans with varied fluconazole susceptibility and genotypic characteristics may coexist in the same oral Candida population.
Sun
Jing
J
Department of Oral Medicine, Key Lab of Oral Biomedicine, Shandong Province, School of Stomatology, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Qi
Cheng
C
Lafleur
Micheal D
MD
Qi
Qing-guo
QG
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D041221:Candida glabrata / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002180:Candidiasis, Oral / Q000382:microbiology; D002681:China; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000032:analysis; D025141:Drug Resistance, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D015725:Fluconazole / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018740:Genetic Heterogeneity; D005838:Genotype; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008875:Middle Aged; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology*; D009172:Mycology / Q000379:methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D055815:Young Adult
D000935:Antifungal Agents; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D015725:Fluconazole