The influence of culture conditions on vasculitis and anaphylactoid shock induced by fungal pathogen Candida albicans cell wall extract in mice

To explore whether Candida cell wall mannan is responsible for induction of vasculitis similar to Kawasaki syndrome and anaphylactoid shock in mice, we examined the biological effects of various mannan structures from Candida cell wall extracts prepared using various culture conditions. Intraperitoneal injection of 3 of 4 Candida cell wall extracts dramatically induced coronary arteritis and acute anaphylactoid shock in mice; only the cell wall extract derived from YPD medium culture at 27 °C had no toxic effect. It is of note that these biological effects depended on culture conditions around the cells such as culture temperature and media. These conditions lead to the structural rearrangement of cell wall mannan as confirmed by reactivity against antisera and NMR spectroscopy. Since the expression of β-1,2-linked mannan varies dramatically between biologically active and inactive mannan, β-1,2-linked mannan might negatively affect Candida cell wall extract-induced coronary arteritis and acute anaphylactoid shock in mice. Our findings indicate that Candida cell wall mannan might contribute to coronary arteritis and acute shock, and that an alteration of mannan structure could be responsible for Candida pathogenicity.