Pathogenicity of Certain Species of Monilia

Abstract

VIEWED in the light of recent work, it appears that the conflict of opinion as to the pathogenicity of the monilia group of fungi depends upon the reported multiplicity of species, and the failure to recognize a variability in the virulence of different strains of the same species.We have shown that many of the cultures classified as different species are identical organisms,' and that cultures isolated by us 2 from sputum of bronchitic patients, cases of thrush, and of vaginitis, all belong to 1 of 3 species, typified by either M. parapsilosis, M. albicans, or M. candida. The relative frequency with which organisms belonging to these species are found in association with inflammatory lesions of the human body and the result of pathogenicity studies also seems important in relation to the results reported in this paper. In our study of 150 cultures isolated from sputum we encountered only 5 strains of M. parapsilosis and 5 strains of M. candida; all others were M. albicans.Plass, Hesseltine and Bouts 3 in a study of monilia vulvo-vaginitis report 28 Redaelli 4 reports his results in the production of experimental moniliasis by intravenous, subcutaneous and intra-peritoneal inoculation of rabbits. He used 5 cultures: M. pinoyi, M. metalondinensis, M. tropicalis, M. krusei, M. macedoniensis. He was able to kill rabbits by intravenous inoculation in 5 to 6 days with all the cultures except M. krusei and M. macedoniensis. In previous reports we have shown that these 2 organisms do not belong to the monilia group of yeast-like fungi, but that M. krusei is a mycoderma and M. macedoniensis produces asci and is therefore an endomycete. He has, then, in this group only 3 monilias: M. pinoyi and M. metalondinensis, which are identical organisms, both being typified by M. albicans, and M. tropicalis, which is typified by M. candida. In his paper he neither discussed the variation in dosage required to kill nor the pathology of the lesion encountered sufficiently to indicate whether his cultures of M. albicans and M. candida differed in any particular in their pathogenicity or virulence.Dowling 5 in a paper in which he reports experimental lesion produced by the intradermal injections of M. albicans also records the result of his animal experimentation with 3 cultures. He was able to kill rabbits by intravenous inoculation of 1 of these cultures. This culture was M. pinoyi Castellani and we have shown it to have all of the cultural characteristics of [594]