Variability of the adherence of Candida albicans strains to human buccal epithelial cells: inconsistency of differences between strains related to virulence.

Adherence of Candida albicans to human buccal epithelial cells varied with the composition of the culture medium used to grow the fungus and the donor of epithelial cells, and even from day to day with the same fungal growth conditions and cell donor. Small differences in adherence were detected between four laboratory strains of C. albicans that differed in virulence for mice, and between three pairs of minimally subcultured isolates from cases of oral thrush and from the mouths of healthy donors. However the differences were not only small but did not consistently show that the adherence capacities of the strains virulent for mice or obtained recently from oral thrush were greater than those of the other strains.