Year: 2017
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) caused by Candida albicans is a common disease worldwide. The most important C. albicans virulence factor is its ability to form biofilms, which, in the vaginal environment, may be formed on the epithelium and on intrauterine devices. Despite it has been shown that VVC has a hormonal dependency, the effects of progesterone on biofilm formation by C. albicans are still poorly understood. Thus, this work aimed to deepen the knowledge in that field by studying the effect of progesterone on C. albicans biofilm formation. C. albicans biofilms were formed in the presence and absence of progesterone and evaluated in terms of cell cultivability, total biomass, metabolic activity, structure, matrix composition and also genomic expression using species-specific microarrays. The results showed that progesterone reduced the ability of C. albicans to form biofilms, decreasing their cell cultivability, biomass, structural cohesion, matrix production and matrix carbohydrate content. Accordingly, biofilms formed in the presence of progesterone presented lower expression of several genes involved in C. albicans adhesion and biofilm formation (e.g. TEC1, BRG1, PBR1, AHR1 and HSP104) than biofilms formed in hormone-free medium. Genes involved in metabolism of carbohydrates were also found to have a reduced expression in biofilms formed with progesterone. On the other hand, progesterone presence led to an over-expression of genes involved in external stimulus response, such as those encoding drug-transporters (e.g. CDR1 and CDR2), and also in lipid metabolism (PXP2, POT1, FAT1, ANT1, MLS1, ICL1 and CIT1). Overall, the results of this study show that progesterone has a role in the modulation of C. albicans biofilm formation, which may have implications on C. albicans pathogenicity in the vaginal environment.
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1578237752, G3891694003
OpenAlex ID: W2767741138