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Mouse model of oropharyngeal candidiasis

Nature Protocols volume 7, pages 637–642 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Oropharyngeal candidiasis is a frequent cause of morbidity in patients with defects in cell-mediated immunity or saliva production. Animal models of this infection are important for studying disease pathogenesis and evaluating vaccines and antifungal therapies. Here we describe a simple mouse model of oropharyngeal candidiasis. Mice are rendered susceptible to oral infection by injection with cortisone acetate and then inoculated by placing a swab saturated with Candida albicans sublingually. This process results in a reproducible level of infection, the histopathology of which mimics that of pseudomembranous oropharyngeal candidiasis in humans. By using this model, data are obtained after 5–9 d of work.

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Figure 1: Histopathology of a typical lesion in the mouse model of oropharyngeal candidiasis after 5 d of infection.
Figure 2
Figure 3: Time course of oropharyngeal candidiasis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grant R01DE017088 and contract no. N01-AI-30041 from the US National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Infectious Diseases, Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, California, USA

    Norma V Solis & Scott G Filler

  2. David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA.,

    Scott G Filler

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  1. Norma V Solis
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Contributions

N.V.S. and S.G.F. performed the experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Scott G Filler.

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Competing interests

S.G.F. is a cofounder of and has equity in NovaDigm Therapeutics.

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Solis, N., Filler, S. Mouse model of oropharyngeal candidiasis. Nat Protoc 7, 637–642 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2012.011

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