[Ultrastructural change of lactobacilli during suppression of their growth by clinical strains of Candida albicans] Zhurnal mikrobiologii, epidemiologii, i immunobiologii [Zh Mikrobiol Epidemiol Immunobiol] Journal article

AIM: Detection of morphophysiological changes in cells of manufacturing strains of lactobacilli suppressed by antagonistically active clinical cultures of Candida albicans, isolated from women with torpid course of vaginosis and vaginitis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three clinical strains of C. albicans suppressing growth of bacterial cells from manufacturing strains of Lactobacillus plantarum 8-PA-3, L. fermentum 90-4C and L. acidophilus D75 on modified agar-added nutrient medium were used. Using electron microscopy, ultrastructural changes in lactobacilli suppressed by C. albicans were studied.
RESULTS: In places of tight contacts of interacting microorganisms, destructive changes in cell walls of lactobacilli appeared as desquamation of small layerwise fragments of peptidoglycan layers were observed. Rearrangement of ultrafine structure of lactobacilli's cytoplasm which expressed as destruction of protein-ribosomal complex was also noted. Local defects of cellular components led to total destruction of cytoplasmic contents and appearance of "cellular shadows".
CONCLUSION: Surmounting by C. albicans the antagonistic action of lactobacilli with destruction of peptidoglycan layer of their cell walls could explain persistence of yeast fungi during chronic forms of vaginosis in women.

Zhurnal mikrobiologii, epidemiologii, i immunobiologii [Zh Mikrobiol Epidemiol Immunobiol]