The Impact Of Estrogen On The Expression Of HWP1 Gene Of Candida Albicans

BackgroundVulvovaginal candidiasis(VVC) is a common disease of women. According to statistics, at least 75% of women suffer from the disease once in a lifetime. Recurrent vulvlvaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is one kind of vulvovaginal candidiasis which occurred four times or more a year. VVC is caused mainly by Candida albicans. Its pathogenic mechanisms include adhesion, beneficial enzymes and invasive phenotype conversion. Hyperplasia of Candida in vaginal is related to age, the effects of estrogen, pregnancy, disease susceptibility. It is clear that Candida albicans infection is often related to the existence of sex hormone. There are many researches on estrogen and Candida albicans infection. Estrogen can change the immune status of the body, the virulence of the strain, and the viginal enviroment which can affect the incidence of vulvovaginal candidiasis. It is known that Candida albicans hyphal wall protein 1 (HWP1) is one of specific protein of Candida albicans germ tubes and hyphae. It is of great importance in the adhesion, which makes it to be a focus of researches. There are few reports about the HWP1 gene, so we carried through a series of the study.ObjectiveStudy the impact of estrogen to the expression of Candida albicans virulence factor- HWP1 gene, to further identify the effect of estrogen to VVC.Materials and methods1. The effect of different concentrations of estrogen to Candida albicans Clinical speciments were collected from January 2009 to December 2009 from gynecology out-patients in Peking University Shenzhen Hospital. Patients with VVC who were diagnosis as cancer, pregnancy, diabetes patients were excluded in the study. Positive pseudohyphal Candida in microscope was isolated and identified the strains. Thirty three Candida albicans were randomly selected, added to the control, 10-6M, 10-7 M, and 10-8M of estrogen in the YPD medium, 35℃, 160rpm, shaken culture for 24h.2. The detection of HWP1 gene Collection of suspension of the various strains of different concentrations, RNA extraction and real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (take Candida albicans housekeeping gene ACT1 as reference), analyze the results.Results1. 10-6M group was significantly higher expression than 10-8M group and control group (P<0.01); 10-6M group was relatively higher expression than 10-7 M group(P<0.05).2. 10-7 M group was significantly higher expression than the 10-8M group and control group, had statistically highly significant difference (P<0.01)3. 10-8M group was relative higher expression than the control group, difference (P<0.05) was statistically significance.4. There are on difference between the strains on the expression of HWP1(P>0.05) in the same concentration of estrogen.Conclusions1 Estrogen can promote the expression of HWP1 gene, which can enhance the pathogenic Candida albicans, and improve the incidence of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis (Vulvovaginal candidiasis, VVC).2 There are on difference between the strains on the expression of HWP1(P>0.05) in the same concentration of estrogen.