Some workers reported that nude mice are more susceptible to Candida albicans infection than normal littermates, while others claim to the contrary.
As the results of comparative studies on the strains and methods of Cutler's experiments and ours, it was concluded that the significance of cellular immunity in experimental murine candidosis greatly varies depending on the strain, route of infection and inoculum size.
Gamma-ray irradiated C. albicans antigen elicited protective immunity comparable to that of live cells. The antigen is assumed to be very useful in the elucidation of host defense mechanisms against C. albicans infection. Therapeutic effect of the antigen is also now being studied.
Several experimental models for the studies of candidosis, such as endocarditis of rabbit or rat, lung candidosis and intramuscular abscess formation are being developed and their characteristic features were discussed.

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The review on the rare visceral mycoses due to Sporthrix schenckii, dematiaceous fungi, Petrillidium boydii (Scedosporium apiospermum) or dermatophytes incuding our own experience, was showed. Furthermore, in vitro antifungal activities of four antifungal agents (ketocnazole, clotrimazole, amphotericin B, 5-flucytosine) against the above-metioned pathogenic fungi were examined under the verious conditions of high temperatue (27°C, 37°C, 40°C).
Some differences due to temperature were seen in Sporthrix schenckii and some strains of Fonsecaea pedrosoi and Exophiala dermatitidis, but no difference in P. bydii (S. apiospermum). Against these fungi, ketoconazole out of four drugs was more effective.

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Of 32 patients with pulmonary aspergilloma 14 died between January 1960 and December 1981. Of the 14 patients 9 died of pulmonary diseases, that is, 5 of bacterial pneumonia, 2 of respiratory insufficiency and each one of pulmonary abscess, pulmonary tuberculosis and suffocation after massive pulmonary hemorrhage, and 6 died of extrapulmonary diseases, that is, each one of carcinoma of esophagus, intraabdominal tumor, liver cirrhosis, alcohlism and malnutrition, and subdural hematoma after head injury. It is more likely that patients with pulmonary aspergilloma will be suffered from pulmonary infections, especially from bacterial pneumonia and that pulmonary infections also will be the important cause of death among these patients. However, further studies in many more cases are necessary for a full evaluation of this speculation.

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The reports on a total of 453 cases with deep-seated cryptococcosis were obtained from the medical, surgical, pediatric and urological departments of the university hospitals and the clinical services of the major national, public and private hospitals throughout the country by questionnairing conducted during the period from January 1971 through August 1981 (48.8% replied) as well as from the issues of “Igaku Chuo Zasshi” (Japan Centra Revuo Medicina) reported from 1971 through 1980 (the duplicated cases were omitted). These cases were classified by diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, etc. and certain problematic points were examined.
Cryptococcosis occurs in 30-60 cases annually. The ratio of male to female patients is 1.3:1 and people at the age of 20-69 years are most susceptible to this disease. In the reported cases, 252 cases had CNS cryptococcosis, 132 cases, pulmonary cryptococcosis, and 82 cases, systemic cryptococcosis, and the survival rate was 39.1% (177 cases), 49.1% (55 cases) and 2.4% (2 cases), respectively. On the basis of these figures, the following issues should be taken up for discussion:
1. It seems that in recent years the actual number of cases with cryptococcosis is increasing although the reported cases are decreasing.
2. It is desirable to spread serological diagnostic procedure for early diagnosis of the disease.
3. Cryptococcosis has become a noticeable disease as one of opprotunistic infections. The patients with the disease often have leukemia, malignant lymphoma or collagen disease as the underlying disease and a possible relationship between cryptococcosis and immunodeficiency will become an issue in the future.
4. Development of a more potent antimycotic agent with fewer side effects is desirable since any drug better than amphotericin B and 5-fluorocytosine is not available.

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The acurate diagnostic criteria for deep-seated candidiasis is often difficult to made because candida species are belonging to the normal flora in healthy person.
About more than 95% of candidiasis occured secondary in the compromised host such as leukemia, malignant lymphoma, aplastic anemia, various cancer and other debilitating diseases. It was poined out that the etiological aspects on candidiasis was deeply depended upon the lowered host defence mechanism to the infection. Therefore it is important to know which factor may relate to cause deep-seated infection by candida for the diagnosis for candidiasis.
Chronic mucoccutaneous candidiasis is a distinct clinical feature in candidiasis. It may be an example of relation to immunological abnormalities in candida infection.
The treatment of candidiasis is usually depended upon with antifungal chemotherapy but most of the secondary candidaiasis must be carefully treated compromised state occused in the host.

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Effects of isoconazole nitrate (ICZ) on functions of biomembrane were studied by using Candida albicans, C. robusta, C. norvegensis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, isolated rat-liver-mitochondria, and sheep red blood cells. ICZ facilitated these yeasts to leak K⁺, adenosine, adenine nucleotides and α-glucosidase, and permitted for p-nitrophenyl-α-D-glucopyranoside to permeate the membrane. These responses to ICZ reflect the impairment of the selective permeability of cell mebrane. An electron microscopic observation revealed that treatment of yeasts with ICZ initiated the process of self-digestion within 7.5min, resulting in disintegration of intracellular organelles. At a fungicidal concentration, ICZ inhibited the respiration of intact yeast cells as well as isolated mammalian mitochondria, and induced hemolysis of sheep red blood cells. With respect to the items examined in this study, severer consequences were brought about by ICZ than by clotrimazole used as a reference drug.

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When various species of Staphylococcus were spot inoculated onto agar plates seeded previously with Pityrosporum pachydermatis, marked stimulation of the background growth of the fungus was observed around colonies of S. simulans and S. sciuri ss sciuri but this activity was weak or absent in other species tested.
The addition of 100ng/ml of nicotinic acid to the test medium resulted in the disappearance of the satellite phenomenon by the full growth of Pityrosporum throughout the agar plate.
Nicotinic acid accumulation in liquid cultures of Staphylococcus was analyzed by bioassay with Lactobacillus arabinosus. S. simulans and S. sciuri ss sciuri produced a large amount, 100 to 4, 000ng/ml, of nicotinic acid while other species produced 29ng/ml or less.
These results indicate that nicotinic acid produced by Staphylococcus is responsible for the satellite phenomenon.
Among resident microorganisms of the human skin or animal skin, Propionibacterium acnes, Pityrosporum orbiculare and P. pachydermatis require nicotinic acid as the growth factor while Staphylococcus such as S. epidermidis produce nicotinic acid during growth. Thus, we presume that nicotinic acid is one of the factor for commensalism of the skin microflora.

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The virulence of Aspergillus fumigatus for mice was examined by inoculating normal mice intravenously with graded doses of spores about each organ during the course of infection. The mice were consistently killed with doses of 5×10⁶ and 10⁷ viable spores of this strain. Spores postchallenge were disappeared rapidly from the liver and spleen, but propagated in the kidney and brain following intravenous challenge with 10⁷ conidia. On the other hand, simultaneous inoculation of viable spores and Asp-hemolysin in mice showed a tendency to help the realization and expansion of infection. The mycelia and toxin were observed microscopically and immunohistochemically in several tissues such as brain and kidney. Actually, in this experiment, secretion of Asp-hemolysin from mycelia was detected in brain and kidney by a technique of indirect enzymelabeled antibody method using of peroxidase binding anti-rabbit IgG antibody. However, the preadministration of antitoxin IgG antibody into mice exhibited a greater protection effect against A. fumigatus invasiveness than that of IgM. These results suggest that the virulence of Aspergillus fumigatus might be related to Asp-hemolysin production, at least in as much as this strain produced Asp-hemolysin in vivo.

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Electrofocusing fractionation of purified Asp-hemolysin, obtained from mycelia of Aspergillus fumigatus Fresenius-Muramatsu strain, was performed utilizing pH 5-7 ampholin-sucrose gradient. Asp-hemolysin was separated into two components with isoelectric points of pH 6.0 and pH 5.5, and designated as the pI 6.0 component and the pI 5.5 component. The proportion of the former to the latter was 11:1 (W/W). The fractionated pI 6.0 component showed similar to amino acid composition, molecular weight, immunodiffusion pattern and biological activity such as hemolysis and lethality to Asp-hemolysin. On the other hand, the pI 5.5 component had no biological activities. Without the pI 5.5 component, hemolytic activity of the pI 6.0 component decreased rapidly within a few days at room temperature. Therefore, when the pI 5.5 component was added to a solution of the pI 6.0 component, hemolytic activity was more stable than the pI 6.0 component alone. These experimental results suggest that the pI 5.5 component is involved in stability of hemolytic activity of the pI 6.0 component, although heterogeneity or dissociation of Asp-hemolysin was not made clear yet.

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The effect of a hot-water extract, called GFE, from the fruiting bodies of cultured Grifola frondosa on the growth of sarcoma 180 tumor cells subcutaneously implanted into ICR mice was examined. Intraperitoneal injection of GFE markedly inhibited the growth of sarcoma 180 tumor cells. When given orally, GFE was also effective although the inhibitory effect was not remarkable.

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