ABSTRACT

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.

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.

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.

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

Keywords: Candida albicans, genotyping