Studies on the Growth Inhibitory Factor against Candida albicans in Human Sera

Kim, Jong Min; Chun, Inn Ki; Kim, Young Pio

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to study further the presence and nature of the serum inhibitory factor against C. albicans and to investigate whether the pregnant mother sera and corresponding the sera of newborn cord blood would have any differend in inhibitory effect compared with normal adult sera. The sei um samples were obtained from 100 normal healthy adults, 50 pregnant mothers, and 5() samples of sera of newborn cord blood respectively. The degree of candidal growth was determined by the change of percent transmission on pectrophotometry of the organism inoculated in nutrient broth during 24-hour incubation. The results obtained were as follows: The sei a from normal healthy adults were found to retain the inhibitory effects on in vit o candidal growth compared with control, The inhibitory effect of pregnant mother or infant cord sera was also demonstrated, but v, as weaker than that of norrnal adult sera. The inhibitory effect of each group sera was reversed nearly to the control level after con..plete saturation with iron. The inhibitory action of normal adults sera in the standard strain of C. albicans was weaker than in the strain from the patient, The nature of the human serum inhibitory factor against in vitro growth of C. albicans seems to be closely related with the unbound iron-binding capacity of transferrin