STUDIES ON EXPERIMENTAL CANDIDIASIS IN THE MICE

UNILATERAL RENAL DAMAGE AND ITS ETIOLOGY IN THE CHRONIC RENAL CANDIDIASIS

Abstract

To investigate the pathogenesis of chronic renal candidiasis, sublethal doses of Candida albicans were injected intravenously into female mice.
In the 6th week after injection, unilateral renal damage and contraction were found in most of the surviving mice. Histological examination in the damaged kidneys revealed pyelonephritic changes with perivascular lymph-follicule formation, but their contralateral kidneys were without remarkable changes.
Bacteriological studies revealed that C. albicans cells were obtained only from the contracted kidneys, and not from the contralateral unaffected kidneys. No C. albicans cells were found in either kidney, when the bilateral kidneys were apparently normal.
Asymmetry in size & weight of the kidneys in mice was observed at 3 weeks after injection, and became more marked thereafter.
By the time the contracted kidneys got atrophied, the contralateral kidneys was grossly hypertrophied, which was also proved by intravenous pyelography.
The count of C. albicans was decreased in the unaffected side, when the renal asymmetry was noted.
This experimental model may be useful in the study of hematogenous chronic pyelonephritis not only of fungal but of bacterial origin.