Candida albicans Essays -- Essays Papers

Candida albicans Candida albicans is a dimorphic fungus. This means that that C. albicans has to different phenotypic forms, an oval shaped yeast form and a branching hyphal form. C. albicans normal habitat is the mucosal membranes of humans and various other mammals including the mouth, gut, vagina, and sometimes the skin. Normally C. albicans causes no damage and lives symbiotically with the human or animal host, even helping to breakdown minute amounts of fiber that are eaten in the host’s diet. The normal bacterial flora of the gut, mouth, and vaginal mucosa act as a barrier to the over growth of fungal infections like C. albicans. Loss of this normal flora is one of the main predisposing factors to an infection by C. albicans. There are many ways that a C. albicans infection may occur. One is the use of antibiotics for an extended period of time to combat a pre-existent bacterial infection. Since the antibiotics used will kill only the bacteria and not any fungus this allows for C. albicans to gain a foot hold over the local mucosa that it is inhabiting, be it the gut, th...