In the first report the author discussed the influence of antibiotics on experimental candidasis in mice to study the mechanism of development of candidasis. In the present report the following experiments were carried out to investigate the influence of concomittant bacteria, especially of E. coli on the in vitro proliferation of Candida.
1. Candida albicans was cultured with E. coli, strain S., and the number of living organisms was counted at regular time intervals in regard to each strain. Streptomycin. was furthermore added to the culture medium, and its influence on Candida proliferation was examined.
2. Bacterial substance, obtained by heating or by freezing and resolution from the bacterial body of E. coli or from its bouillon culture filtrate, was added to the above culture medium to study its influence on the number of living Candida. The results of the experiments were as follows:
1. Evident antagonism was confirmed between. E. coli and Candida, when they were cultivated simultaneously. In the earlier period (within 24 hours) E. coli predominated over Candida, the proliferation of the latter being supressed. In the later period (after 48 hours) an abundant growth of Candida was observed hand in hand with an abrupt decline of E. coll in its proliferation.
2. A thermolabile factor, inhibitory on Candida, was demonstrable in the bouillon culture filtrate of E. coli.
3. Bacterial body of E. coll contained a thermostable substance, which, even in a minimum quantity, accelerated the proliferation of Candida.
4. Streptomycin, added in 1, 000γ/ml to the mixed culture of Candida and E. coli, inhibited the growth of E. coli and remarkably accelerated that of Candida. The latter effect was not attributable to a direct action of the medicament on Candida.
These results indicated that the extirpation of bacteria by a large dose of antibiotics and the liberation of substance from the bacterial body accelerating Candida proliferation played an important part in the development of Candidasis in man.
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