Suppressive action of cytoplasmic and metabolite extracts of Candida albicans on the immune response in guinea pigs.

This study investigated the possibility that Candida albicans components exert a suppressive effect on the immune response of guinea pigs (GP), similar to that of live C. albicans organisms as was previously shown. Hartley GP were inoculated with C. albicans crude cytoplasmic or metabolite (culture filtrate) extracts (containing most of the organism's cell contents or its metabolite and degradation products, respectively). Their immunological responses towards sheep red blood cells (SRBC) were compared with those of GP inoculated with SRBC alone or with SRBC together with live C. albicans organisms. The immunological responses were measured by: 1) rosette formation (RF) of SRBC with peritoneal macrophages, 2) haemolytic plaque formation (PFC) with lymph node-cells, 3) haemagglutination and 4) haemolysis tests. According to the RF tests, inoculation of GP with either cytoplasmic or metabolite extracts resulted in decreased RF as compared to GP inoculated with SRBC only; the decrease was correlated with the protein concentration of the extracts. Inoculation with metabolite extract led to a more diminished RF than with cytoplasmic extract, but less than with live C. albicans organisms. Inoculation of cytoplasmic extracts did not affect the haemagglutinin and haemolysin titers, while that of metabolite extracts resulted in a slight decrease of these titers. The assays for PFC were not conclusive enough to point to a suppressive effect of C. albicans extracts. In summary, it appears that both the cytoplasmic and metabolite extracts of C. albicans exert a partial suppressive effect on the immune response in GP, as judged primarily on the basis of the RF results.