Abstract

Mice pretreated with antibiotics were inoculated intragastrically with different yeast isolates to determine whether the resulting disruption of the normal flora ecology would allow certain fungi to colonize and disseminate from the gastrointestinal tract. Antibiotic treatment decreased the total population levels of the indigenous bacterial flora, and predisposed mice to gastrointestinal overgrowth and subsequent dissemination by Candida albicans, C. parapsilosis, C. pseudotropicalis, C. tropicalis, and Torulopsis glabrata. A clinical isolate of Rhodotorula rubra, on the other hand, was unable to maintain a stable population in the gut of similar mice and could not be isolated from systemic organs. Control animals not receiving antibiotic therapy, challenged with C. albicans, showed significantly lower gut population levels of yeasts, and Candida organisms could not be grown from visceral organs. It is suggested that suppression of fungi within the gastrointestinal tract by members of the normal bacterial flora may be an important mechanism whereby fungi are confined to the alimentary tract.