Attached
Objective: To determine the effect of glucose, sucrose, and
saccharin on growth, adhesion, and biofilm formation of
Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis. Materials and
Methods: The growth rates of mono-cultures of planktonic
C. albicans and C. tropicalis and 1:1 mixed co-cultures were
determined in yeast nitrogen broth supplemented with 5%
(30 mM) and 10% (60 mM) glucose, sucrose, and saccharin,
using optical density measurements at 2-h intervals over a
14-h period. Adhesion and biofilm growth were performed
and the growth quantified using a standard 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.
The biofilm architecture was visualized using scanning electron microscopy. One- and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to analyse the differences among
multiple means. Results: The highest planktonic growth was
noted in 5% glucose after 14 h (p < 0.05). No significant
planktonic growth was observed in either concentration of
saccharin. Both the concentrations of glucose and sucrose
elicited significantly increased adhesion from MTT activity of
0.017 to >0.019 in mono- as well as co-cultures (p < 0.05),
whilst the lower concentration of saccharin significantly
dampened the adhesion. Maximal biofilm growth was observed in both species with the lower concentration of sucrose (5%), although a similar concentration of saccharin abrogated biofilm development: the highest MTT value (>0.35)
was obtained for glucose and the lowest (>0.15) for saccharin. Conclusion: In this study, glucose and sucrose accelerated the growth, adhesion, and biofilm formation of Candida
species. However, the non-nutritive sweetener saccharin appeared to dampen, and in some instances suppress, these
virulent attributes of Candida.
