[Effect of antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs on gastrointestinal infections and dissemination by C. albicans in mice inoculated orally with C. albicans].

The authors studied the effect of antibiotics, hydrocortisone and anti-cancer drugs on gastrointestinal infections and dissemination by C. albicans in mice inoculated orally with C. albicans. The mice were given orally, vancomycin, amikacin and polymyxin B, and they also were injected with ampicillin and gentamicin. Hydrocortisone, cyclophosphamide (CPA) which causes leukopenia and neutropenia, and methotrexate (MTX) which injures the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract were injected to the mice. In the mice treated with antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs, and inoculated orally with C. albicans, the colony forming units of the feces conspicuously increased. Gastrointestinal candidiasis was frequently observed, particularly at the cardia and the cardio-antrum line of the stomach of these mice. In addition to these sites, gastrointestinal candidiasis was observed at the antrum and the small intestine of the mice injected with MTX. C. albicans was frequently recovered from the livers and lungs of the mice treated with antibiotics and MTX + CPA which cause leukopenia, neutropenia and the damage of mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract. It is suggested that the threshold gut population of C. albicans is a determinant for gastrointestinal candidiasis, and that leukopenia, neutropenia and the damage of mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract are important factors for dissemination by C. albicans from the primary gastrointestinal lesions.