A strain of Sporothrix schenckii (named KONODAI strain) happened to be isolated from scales in the eczematous lesion on a woman's buttock without clinical features characteristic of sporotrichosis. The colony of the isolated fungus on Sabouraud's dextrose agar was slightly moist with pigmentation, and the development of pigmentation was more evident on corn meal agar. The fungus produced delicate septate hyphae that gave rise to short conidiophores bearing a cluster of conidia. Conidia were also formed along the sides of hyphae. The fungus converted to a yeast-phase of growth on brain heart infusion dextrose agar at 37°C. It required thiamine for growth. Mice that received intraperitoneal injection of its yeast-phase cells developed peritoneal and peritesticular lesions. Furthermore it was brightly stained with fluoresein-labeled anti-S. schenckii rabbit globulin.
It was identified as S. schenckii for the reasons mentioned above.
There had been some reports on the isolation of S. schenckii from natural sources such as soil, plant debris or wood, but the isolation of the fungus from nonsporotrichotic human skin surface or scrapings of scales was uncommon.

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Four strains of Candida utilis (No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and ATCC 9550), one of the industrial yeasts, were examined for the pathogenicity or virulence on mice in comparing with those of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 9763 and Candida albicans KULM 5012.
Saline suspension of 5×10⁶ or 1×10⁷ yeast cells of the organisms were inoculated intravenously to ddY male 4 weeks conventional mice. The same strain of 4 weeks SPF mice pretreated with 6MP or predonisolone were also used for the experimental infections. A total of 290 mice were studied.
From the results obtained from examinations of somatic signs, body weight curve, mortality rate, recovery culture from various organs, viable yeast cell counts in the liver, and extensive histopathological investigations, it was concluded that no remarkable difference in pathogenicity or virulence on mice was detected among 4 strains of C. utilis and 1 strain of S. cerevisiae ATCC 9763 in contrast to apparently virulent C. albicans KULM 5012.

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The capillary permeability was measured by dye (azovan blue) accumulation in the skin of rats. The dye accumulation was investigated after i. d. injection of tyramine, histamine, serotonin, dopamine, N-acetyltyramine, N-acetylhistamine and N-acetylserotonin in the reserpinized rats, compound 48/80-treated rats and in the non-treated rats.
(1) The marked increase in capillary permeability was elicited after i. d. injection of histamine and serotonin in the non-treated rats. Other biogenic amines and N-acetylated amines also increased capillary permeability weakly.
(2) The marked increase in capillary permeability was elicited after i. d. injection of histamine and serotonin in the reserpinized rats. And increase in the capillary permeability after serotonin in the non-reserpinized rats was significantly reduced (p<0.01) when compared with that in the reserpinized rats, but not significant after histamine. In the cases of other biogenic amines and N-acetylated amines, there was a significant reduction (p<0.01-p<0.005) in the capillary permeability after i. d. injection of above mentioned substances in the reserpinized rats when compared with non-reserpinized rats.
(3) The marked increase in capillary permeability was elicited after i. d. injection of histamine and serotonin in the compound 48/80-treated rats, which was not significant when compared with non-treated rats (compound 48/80). Moreover, the weak increase in capillary permeability was also elicited after i. d. injection of other biogenic amines and N-acetylated amines, which was significantly reduced (p<0.01-p<0.005) when compared with non-treated rats (compound 48/80), but not significant after N-acetylserotonin and dopamine.
(4) Increase in the capillary permeability after biogenic amines was significantly stronger than that after N-acetylated amines (p<0.01-p<0.005) except tyramine and N-acetyltyramine.

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Case 1) A 2 year-old boy visited the dermatology clinic of Goto Central Hospital, Nagasaki, because of a kerion lesion on his scalp which had developed several days prior to the consultation (Fig. 1). On microscopic examination ectothrix-type fungal hair invasion was revealed and Trichophyton verrucosum was isolated (Fig. 2, 3, 5, 6). He was treated with oral administration of griseofulvin which resulted in quick response.
Case 2) A 3 year-old boy, a brother of case 1, visited the hospital clinic because of high grade inflammatory tinea circinata lesion on his left thigh (Fig. 4). T. verrucosum was isolated and he was also treated with oral griseofulvin successfully.
The family of the two patients keep cattles on their farm and those cattles were submitted to the examination for ringworm. Some young cattles had typical ringworm lesions on their noses, periorbital and glutaeal regions. T. verrucosum were isolated from the lesions (Fig. 7-10).
The introduction of T. verrucosum into Japan is presumably due to the import of infected cattles from Europe to Hokkaido, the northern part of Japan, before 20 years and T. verrucosum has spread rapidly all over Japan thereafter, and in the present times, the fungus has turned to be one of the causative organisms of human ringworm.

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A new synthetic antifungal agent, miconazole, was found to exhibit a potent antibacterial activity against various species of gram positive aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Gram positive obligatory anaerobic endospore-forming rods, viz. clostridia, in particular, were most sensitive. Gram negative aerobic and anaerobic bacteria were not affected.
No difference in antibacterial activities of miconazole against aerobic bacteria was observed between aerobic and anaerobic culture condition.

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The influence of various factors on minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum cidal concentration (MCC) of miconazole (MCZ) on the growth of various pathogenic fungi was investigated.
Prolongation of incubation time hardly showed a significant influence on the MIC and MCC values of MCZ against both C. albicans and dermatophytes, viz. some species of Trichophyton, Epidermophyton, and Microsporum.
Increase in inoculum size affected cosiderably the MIC values against C. albicans yeast form cells and slightly against T. mentagrophytes conidia.
The MIC and MCC values were raised in alkaline pH environment.
The addition of whole blood, plasma, erythrocyte or serum raised both values. Calf serum also raised both values significantly, whereas the effect of bovine serum albumin was slight. Lipids extracted from calf serum decreased anti-C. albicans activity of MCZ remarkably.

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Econazole had a potent fungicidal as well as fungistatic activity against many yeasts, yeast-like fungi and dermatophytes. This action was affected by neither composition of culture media nor their pH values, and was slightly inhibited by elongation of incubation time and increase in inoculum size. However, the influence of the blood was never negligible; particularly the lipid component seems to be principally attributable to the antagonistic effect of the blood.

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T. mentagrophytes conidia were inoculated to the depilated skin of approximate 3cm in diameter on the back of guinea pigs. Topical treatment with a 2% econazole suspension in polyethylene glycol was started 5 days after infection, which was continued 2 weeks. Under such experimental conditions and also in the case of treatment with a 0.5% econazole suspension, a complete cure was attained both clinically and mycologically; lesions developed disappeared, accompanied by becoming negative upon culture as early as almost simultaneously with the completion of treatment. This effect of econazole was equivalent to clotrimazole when compared using their 1% formulation. One percent formulation in cream base also showed a similar potency in this experimental system.

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