Cml. Maffei et al., PHENOTYPE AND GENOTYPE OF CANDIDA-ALBICANS STRAINS ISOLATED FROM PREGNANT-WOMEN WITH RECURRENT VAGINITIS, Mycopathologia, 137(2), 1997, pp. 87-94
Fourteen out of 80 pregnant women receiving prenatal care presented si
gns and symptoms of recurrent vaginal candidiasis. Candida albicans st
rains were isolated from 12 patients (85.7%), and these were submitted
to morphotyping (morphological characteristics of the colony), antifu
ngal typing (pattern of sensitivity to amphotericin B, 5-fluorcytosine
, myconazole, ketoconazole and fluconazole) and genotyping (electropho
retic migration of DNA fragments digested with EcoRI and HinfI). Alter
ation of morphotype and antifungal type was observed in 50% of the pat
ients, bur the genotype of the strains isolated from the same patients
at different times was identical in all subjects. The predominant mor
photypes presented continuous fringes and the basic changes observed a
mong antifungal types was the emergence of strains resistant to mycona
zole, which was the drug used for the treatment of the first episode o
f vaginitis. We conclude that recurrent vaginal candidiasis is caused
by the persistence of a single yeast genotype that undergoes morpholog
ical and behavioral changes in the presence of antifungal agents due t
o the selective pressure to which it is submitted.