Biofilm formation in clinical Candida isolates and its association with virulence

Biofilm formation, an important virulence trait of Candida species was measured in 107 Candida isolates from 32 candidemic patients by XTT [2,3-bis (2-methoxy-4nitro-5-sulfo-phenyl)-2H-tetra-zolium-5-carboxanilide] activity and compared to biofilm formation of Candida isolates from oropharyngeal lesions of 19 AIDS patients. Biofilm formation by XTT varied among species and C. albicans; C. lusitaniae and C. krusei produced more biofilm than the other Candida species. C. tropicalis was the most dominant species isolated from blood followed by C. albicans, and other non-albicans species whereas only C. albicans was recovered from oral lesions. Importantly, though Biofilm formation was variable within a species it was stable in sequential isolates during chronic infection. Sequential isolates exhibited identical Karyotype pattern or RAPD patterns unless patients were co-infected with more than one strain. High biofilm formation was associated with slow growth rate but not with adherence. Murine infection studies demonstrated that, degree of in-vitro biofilm formation was associated with virulence in mice, as mice infected both with no and low biofilm formers survived longer than mice infected with high biofilm former C. albicans (p ≤ 0.001). We conclude that biofilm formation is a stable but strain specific characteristic that can greatly vary among C. albicans and non-albicans strains, and plays an important role in persistence of infection.