Biochemical and Immunocheniical Studies of Fungi

(II) On the Antigenic Substances of Candida albicans with Trichloroacetic acid-Extraction Methods

Abstract

A study has been done on the cold trichloroacetic acid-soluble polysaccharides of C. albicans under several culture conditions and on the antigenic substances, and the following results were obtained.
(I) The amounts of cold TCA-soluble polysaccharide of whole cells have been estimated by the anthrone value, and with synthetic medium it showed the maximumamounts in 2 or 3 days, and thereafter it decreased.
Adding various organic acids in glucose medium, it was observed that the anthrone value of cells generally increased, especially with citrate and malate.
Acetate or formate has a little effect for growth, but onthe contrary shows markedly effect on the anthrone value.
On the other hand, stimulation of TCA-soluble polysaccharide formation of whole cells was not observed at addition of Casamino acid in the culture medium.
(II) Extracts of tricholoroacetic acid from cells (SI) and that of hot water from cell residues (SII) were composed of mannose, glucose, galactose and glucosamine as the component sugars of antigenic substances, and further more SII fraction contained xylose, but both fractions did not contain uronic acid. It is interesting to note that SI and SII fractions contain several glyco-proteins which show resemble electrophoretic pattern.
(III) In precipitin reaction, it was shown that SII fraction gave more strong reaction than SI.