RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Westwater, Caroline A1 Balish, Edward A1 Warner, Thomas F. A1 Nicholas, Peter J. A1 Paulling, Emily E. A1 Schofield, David A.YR 2007 T1 Susceptibility of gnotobiotic transgenic mice (Tgϵ26) with combined deficiencies in natural killer cells and T cells to wild-type and hyphal signalling-defective mutants of Candida albicans JF Journal of Medical Microbiology, VO 56 IS 9 SP 1138 OP 1144 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.47110-0 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1473-5644, AB Germfree transgenic epsilon 26 mice (Tgϵ26), deficient in natural killer cells and T cells, were colonized (alimentary tract) with Candida albicans wild-type or each of two hyphal transcription factor signalling mutant strains (efg1/efg1, efg1/efg1 cph1/cph1). Each Candida strain colonized the alimentary tract, infected keratinized gastric tissues to a similar extent, and induced a granulocyte-dominated inflammatory response in infected tissues. Both wild-type and mutant strains formed hyphae in vivo and were able to elicit an increase in cytokine [tumour necrosis factor alpha, interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-12] and chemokine (KC and macrophage inflammatory protein-2] mRNAs in infected tissues; however, administration of the wild-type strain was lethal for the Tgϵ26 mice, whereas the mice colonized with the mutant strains survived. Death of the Tgϵ26-colonized mice appeared to be due to occlusive oesophageal candidiasis, and not to disseminated candidiasis of endogenous origin. In contrast, the mutant strains exhibited a significantly reduced capacity to infect (frequency and severity) oro-oesophageal (tongue and oesophagus) tissues. Therefore, the two hyphal signalling-defective mutants were less able to infect oro-oesophageal tissues and were non-lethal, but retained their ability to colonize the alimentary tract with yeast and hyphae, infect keratinized gastric tissues, and evoke an inflammatory response in orogastric tissues., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.47110-0