IAI FigSearch
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Steele, C.
Right arrow Articles by Fidel, P. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Steele, C.
Right arrow Articles by Fidel, P. L., Jr.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infection and Immunity, November 2001, p. 7091-7099, Vol. 69, No. 11
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.11.7091-7099.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Potential Role for a Carbohydrate Moiety in Anti-Candida Activity of Human Oral Epithelial Cells

Chad Steele,1 Janet Leigh,2 Rolf Swoboda,1 Hatice Ozenci,1 and Paul L. Fidel Jr.1,*

Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112,1 and Department of General Dentistry, Louisiana State University School of Dentistry, New Orleans, Louisiana 701192

Received 11 May 2001/Returned for modification 9 July 2001/Accepted 8 August 2001

Candida albicans is both a commensal and a pathogen at the oral mucosa. Although an intricate network of host defense mechanisms are expected for protection against oropharyngeal candidiasis, anti-Candida host defense mechanisms at the oral mucosa are poorly understood. Our laboratory recently showed that primary epithelial cells from human oral mucosa, as well as an oral epithelial cell line, inhibit the growth of blastoconidia and/or hyphal phases of several Candida species in vitro with a requirement for cell contact and with no demonstrable role for soluble factors. In the present study, we show that oral epithelial cell-mediated anti-Candida activity is resistant to gamma-irradiation and is not mediated by phagocytosis, nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide oxidative inhibitory pathways or by nonoxidative components such as soluble defensin and calprotectin peptides. In contrast, epithelial cell-mediated anti-Candida activity was sensitive to heat, paraformaldehyde fixation, and detergents, but these treatments were accompanied by a significant loss in epithelial cell viability. Treatments that removed existing membrane protein or lipid moieties in the presence or absence of protein synthesis inhibitors had no effect on epithelial cell inhibitory activity. In contrast, the epithelial cell-mediated anti-Candida activity was abrogated after treatment of the epithelial cells with periodic acid, suggesting a role for carbohydrates. Adherence of C. albicans to oral epithelial cells was unaffected, indicating that the carbohydrate moiety is exclusively associated with the growth inhibition activity. Subsequent studies that evaluated specific membrane carbohydrate moieties, however, showed no role for sulfated polysaccharides, sialic acid residues, or glucose- and mannose-containing carbohydrates. These results suggest that oral epithelial cell-mediated anti-Candida activity occurs exclusively with viable epithelial cells through contact with C. albicans by an as-yet-undefined carbohydrate moiety.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 1901 Perdido St., New Orleans, LA 70112. Phone: (504) 568-4066. Fax: (504) 568-4066. E-mail: pfidel{at}lsuhsc.edu.

Infection and Immunity, November 2001, p. 7091-7099, Vol. 69, No. 11
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.11.7091-7099.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. J. Virol. Eukaryot. Cell
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. All ASM Journals

Copyright © 2001 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.