The study objective was to evaluate the effects of photodynamic therapy on buccal candidiasis in rats. After experimental candidiasis had been induced on the tongue dorsum, 72 rats were distributed into four groups according to treatment: treated with laser and methylene blue photosensitizer (L+P+); treated only with laser (L+P-); treated only with photosensitizer (L--P+); not treated with laser or photosensitizer (L-P-). The rats were killed immediately, 1 day, or 5 days after treatment, for microscopic analysis of the tongue dorsum. Observation verified that the photodynamic therapy group (L+P+) exhibited fewer epithelial alterations and a lower chronic inflammatory response than the L-P- group. The group L+P- presented more intense epithelial alterations and chronic inflammatory response than the remaining groups. The L-P+ group showed tissue lesions similar to those of the L-P- group. In conclusion, rats treated with photodynamic therapy developed more discrete candidiasis lesions than did the remaining groups.

Photodynamic therapy reduced the microscopic lesions of experimental candidiasis in rats and inhibited the proteinase activity of C. albicans.

The aim of this study was to analyze the development of candidosis and the recovery of C. albicans from the oral cavity of ovariectomized and sham‐ovariectomized rats. One hundred and twenty‐four rats originally negative for Candida spp. in the oral cavity were divided into two groups: ovariectomized and sham‐ovariectomized. Fifty‐eight ovariectomized and the same quantity of sham‐ovariectomized rats were inoculated with C. albicans for the study of candidosis development and recovery of yeast. Four animals from each group were not inoculated with yeast suspension and were submitted to tongue dorsum morphologic analysis by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The development of candidosis in the tongue dorsum was observed by optical and scanning electron microscopy in the periods of 6 hr, 24 hr, 7 days and 15 days after the last inoculation. Recovery of C. albicans was performed by oral samples plating on Sabouraud agar after 1, 2, 5 and 7 days and progressively at each 15‐day interval until negative cultures for yeasts were obtained. The results were analyzed by Mann‐Whitney and Student's t tests. The tongue dorsum of sham‐ovariectomized and ovariectomized rats, not infected by Candida, presented normal aspect. Among the infected rats, the ovariectomized group showed less occurrence of candidosis lesions and lower recovery of C. albicans from the oral cavity in relation to the sham‐ovariectomized group. It could be concluded that candidosis was less frequent from the oral cavities of ovariectomized rats in relation to sham‐ovariectomized.