Role of Glycosides as Epithelial Cell Receptors for Candida albicans

The effect of various lectins and sugars on adhesion of five strains of Candida albicans to buccal and vaginal epithelial cells in vitro was investigated. Adhesion of C. albicans GDH 2346 was inhibited primarily by L-fucose and winged-pea lectin, whereas adhesion of strain GDH 2023 was inhibited by N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, or D-glucosamine, and wheat-germ agglutinin. Three other strains of C. albicans (MRL 3153, GRI 681 and GRI 682) gave results similar to those obtained with strain GDH 2346. Extracellular polymeric material (EP) isolated from strain GDH 2346 inhibited adhesion of strains MRL 3153, GRI 681 and GRI 682 by more than 50%, but that of strain GDH 2023 by only 30%. EP from strain GDH 2023 had little or no effect on the adhesion of any other yeast strain. Lectin-like proteins with affinities for L-fucose, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and D-mannose were detected in EP from all five strains in different amounts. These results indicate that there are at least two types of adhesion mechanism and that glycosides containing L-fucose or N-acetyl-D-glucosamine can function as epithelial cell receptors for C. albicans.