Adhesion of different Candida spp. to plastic: XTT formazan determinations

Abstract

Adhesion of synchronized yeast-phase Candida cells to tissue culture plastic was investigated using the tetrazolium salt, XTT. The procedure permits the direct enumeration of adherent yeasts following the metabolic conversion of the XTT tetrazolium salt, to its reduced formazan form, by mitochondrial dehydrogenases. Using this procedure, the formation of XTT formazan by Candida cells was typically related to the inoculum size. The adhesion of Candida yeast-phase cells from different Candida spp. to plastic was of the following order: C. krusei (n = 5) > C. albicans (n = 10) > C. glabrata (n = 6). Furthermore, preliminary experiments with several other species indicated that C. tropicalis (n = 2) may adhere as well as C. albicans and that one strain each of C. guilliermondii and C. parapsilosis appear to adhere to plastic in a similar fashion to C. glabrata. The data indicate the utility of the XTT tetrazolium based assay in enumerating the adhesion of different Candida spp. to plastic.