Epidermal proliferation and the neutrophilic infiltrates of experimental cutaneous candidiasis in mice.

A mouse model of cutaneous candidiasis was used to determine if the prominent neutrophilic infiltrates in the infected skin of nonimmune animals were responsible for inducing the early phase of epidermal proliferation seen in these infections. Both the organisms and resulting neutrophilic microabscesses were found in the cellular layers of the epidermis at 12 h after inoculation, and were then extruded together to a more superficial site in the stratum corneum over the next 1-2 days. The degree of epidermal proliferation elicited at the site of the Candida foci, as determined from the thickness of the cellular layers of the epidermis, was the same for foci with neutrophils as for those without, even when the latter came from severely leukopenic animals. The location of neutrophils within the infected skin or the numbers of organisms present did not seem to make a difference with respect to the degree of epidermal proliferation produced at the site of Candida foci. These data suggest that in acute experimental cutaneous Candida infections the organisms can elicit a vigorous epidermal proliferative response in the absence of the neutrophilic infiltrates usually seen in these infections.