A 57-year-old male patient had diabetes mellitus, alcoholic hepatitis and SLE as underlying diseases. He was admitted to hospital complaining of fever, had an abnormal shadow in the lower right lung, and a swelling of the neck lymph node. The patient was diagnosed as candidemia caused by Candida parapsilosis, since the fungi had been continuously detected from the venous blood taken at the time of admission. Ketoconazole was given to the patient at a daily dose of 200mg for 41 days, which seemed to be clinically effective.
Subjective and objective symptoms and laboratory findings before and after treatment showed no adverse reaction or abnormal change by this drug, even with the long administration period of 41 days. It was noteworthy that the patient did not show changes in GOT or GPT during or after administration in spite of having a history of alcoholic hepatitis. Nevertheless, prolonged therapy of ketoconazole should be carefully performed.

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The rate of binding of Asp-hemolysin to human erythrocyte ghosts was determined by the single radial immunodiffusion technique. This binding rate was found to be reduced by various chemical reagents, yielding inhibition rates in the order of: glyoxal>TNBS>4-PDS>DTNB>HgCl₂. These findings suggest that sulfhydryl and arginine-guanidino group(s) in the toxin may play an important role as a site of binding to the erythrocyte membrane. On the other hand, the hemolytic activity of Asp-hemolysin for chicken erythrocytes was significantly inhibited by arginine, lysine, and ornithine, while it was not affected by the similar compounds citruline, betaine, and histidine. Arginine was shown to be the most effective competitive inhibitor.
On the basis of these results, the presence of a binding site in the Asp-hemolysin molecule is suggested. Furthermore, we suggest that the inhibition caused by arginine and related compounds is competitive.

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Dermatophytes were isolated from 136 dermatophytosis patients including 5 cases of mixed infection, and from 125 samples of patients' house dust and 57 samples of non-patients' house dust.
The etiologic dermatophytes isolated from the patients were Trichophyton mentagrophytes in 57 cases (41.9%), T. rubrum in 55 cases (40.4%), Microsporum canis in 18 cases (13.2%), Epidermophyton floccosum in 9 cases (6.6%), M. gypseum in 1 case (0.7%) and T. violaceum in 1 case (0.7%).
A relationship between the dermatophytes isolated from patients and from their house dust was found in 48 out of 118 samples. Seven samples, from 5 superinfected cases and 2 familial cases, were excluded from the total 125 house dust samples. The number and ratio of occurrence of dermatophytes from patients and house dust were 28 of 47 samples (59.6%) in the case of T. mentagrophytes, 5 of 50 (10%) in T. rubrum, 10 of 12 (83.1%) in M. canis, 3 of 7 (42.9%) in E. floccosum and 1 of 1 (100%) in each of M. gypseum and T. violaceum.
Among 57 samples of non-patients' house dust, dermatophytes were isolated from 15 (26.3%), T. mentagrophytes accounted for 12 (21.5%) and M. gypseum 3 (5.3%).
M. gypseum isolated from house dust samples stayed viable at room temperature for up to 16 months after sampling, M. canis for 12 months, T. mentagrophytes for 9 months and E. floccosum for 9 months.
These results as well as the multiple occurrence of infection in families and recurrent T. violaceum infection, indicate that house dust should be considered as a significant source of dermatophyte infection.

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A 62-year-old farmer's wife visited our hospital because of an erythematous lesion on the right third finger. She had had a trauma on this site 4 years previously and complained that the lesion had developed after that. Sporotrichosis was suspected and she was treated by oral administration of potassium iodide for one year with no noticeable effect. Three years later, she visited our hospital again because of the expansion of the legion on the back of the right hand. Direct microscopic examination of crusts from the lesion revealed sclerotic cells, some of which showed germ tubes. Histopathologically, radiate periphery structures were seen around the fungal cells. A dematiaceous fungus was isolated from the biopsy specimens. The isolate was identified as Exophiala dermatitidis on the basis of its morphological characteristics and growth at 40°C. This is the first case of chromomycosis due to E. dermatitidis in an asteroid tissue form.

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Attempts were made to isolate the plasma membrane fraction in a highly purified state from yeast form of Candida albicans.
Spheroplasts were obtained by digesting cell walls with Zymolyase-100, 000 from Arthrobacter liteus. The plasma membrane fraction was prepared by bursting spheroplasts in Tris-HCl buffer containing 0.05% digitonin followed by differential centrifugations.
The electron microscopic observation has revealed that the digitonin-treated plasma membrane fraction was free of cytoplasmic components. The activities of chitin synthetase and vanadate-sensitive Mg⁺⁺-ATPase of the purified plasma membrane fraction were approximately seven and eleven times higher respectively, compared with those of the spheroplast homogenate. Major polar phospholipids of the plasma membranes thus obtained were phosphatidylethanolamine (34.8%), phosphatidylcholine (18.5%) and phosphatidylserine (12.8%).

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The effects were studied of serum iron binding capacity and iron overload on susceptibility to aspergillosis produced in leukemic mice.
All leukemic mice died of aspergillosis and demonstrated significantly decreased levels of unbound iron binding capacity; however, both serum iron and iron saturation were significantly increased, as compared with those of normal control. In addition, the group with iron administration died earlier than that without iron and Aspergillus involved more organs with markedly increased serum iron.
These results indicate that the deranged iron status in leukemia brings about a favorable milieu for the growth of fungus, and that the inevitable blood transfusion for leukemic patients carries with it a great vulnerability to Aspergillus infection.

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The dissociative condition of Asp-hemolysin, a protein toxin purified from Aspergillus fumigatus, into subunits was investigated.
The extent of dissociation by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as examined by slab-gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) depended on SDS concentration, pH, and reaction time. Concentration of slab-gel was also an important factor in resolving the resultant subunits. Asp-hemolysin protein was found to dissociate into three subunits, (A), (B), and (C), when incubated in the best dissociative condition of 1% SDS, and pH 8.0 for 2hr. The molecular weights of subunits isolated by SDS-PAGE were A: 15500, B: 12000 and C: 8000 in a molar ratio of 2:1:2, respectively.
Three protein bands were detected by Toyopearl HW-50 column chromatography in the presence of 1% SDS and 20mM 2-mercaptoethanol.
One hundred micrograms of any of the three subunits had no hemolytic activity by itself.

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Microsporum canis contagion was suspected following consultation with a junior high school age patient with a small papulo-erythematous eruption on her face and neck. She stated that many of her classmates had the same lesions, so a group examination was carried out 3 days later at her school and M. canis was isolated from a total of 21 students.
It is conceivable that the disease was transmitted by a deserted kitten picked up with a crustling lesion on its head. This kitten was brought to the school by 2 classmates, and handled by 8 others. The contagion in this case could be traced not only through the direct touching of the kitten but also through more indirect toughing among intimate classmates and intercourse in their school club activities; two cases of contagion to their families were also noted.
The period from contact with the kitten and friends to the manifestation of the disease was usually within 4 days.

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