ABSTRACT

Aim:

The aim of this study was to genotype C. albicans strains isolated from blood cultures of sepsis patients (invasive isolates) and from oral rinse samples of healthy adults and HIV-positive patients (non-invasive isolates) by using two different primer sets targeting the same gene.

Materials and Methods:

42 C. albicans invasive isolates obtained from sepsis patients and 68 oral non-invasive isolates obtained from oral rinse samples of healthy adults (n=30) and HIV-positive patients (n=38) were included in this study. C. albicans identification was made by conventional microbiological tests and confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). 25S intron genotyping was performed by using CaLSU-F and CaLSU-R primers and by using CA-INT-L and CA-INT-R pri-mers.

Results:

Twelve of the 42 C. albicans isolates from blood samples were genotype A (28.5%), 17 were genotype B (40.5) and 13 were genotype C (31%). In the noninvasive group, genotype distri-bution of the HIV-positive patients and healthy controls were as follows: 15 (39.5%) of the 38 oral isolates obtained from HIV-positive patients were found as genotype A, 7 (18.4) genotype B, and 16 (42.1%) genotype C. Among the 30 oral isolates obtained from healthy adults, 9 (30%) were genotype A, 12 (40%) were genotype B, and 9 (30%) were genotype C. The results obtained by using both of the primers were in correlation with each other.

Conclusion:

No statistical significant difference was observed between the genotype distributi-ons of invasive and noninvasive isolates.