Experimental in Vivo Models of Candidiasis.

Candidiasis is a multifaceted fungal disease including mucosal-cutaneous, visceral, and disseminated infections caused by yeast species of the genus . infections are among the most common human mycoses. species are the third to fourth most common isolates from bloodstream infections in neutropenic or immunocompromised hospitalized patients. The mucosal-cutaneous forms-particularly vaginal infections-have a high prevalence. Vaginitis caused by species is the second most common vaginal infection. Hence, candidiasis is a major subject for research, including experimental in vivo models to study pathogenesis, prevention, or therapy of the disease. The following review article will focus on various experimental in vivo models in different laboratory animals, such as mammals (mice, rats, rabbits), the fruit fly-, the larvae of the moth , or the free-living nematode The review will describe the induction of the different clinical forms of candidiasis in the various models and the validity of such models in mimicking the human clinical situations. The use of such models for the assessment of antifungal drugs, evaluation of potential vaccines to protect before candidiasis, exploration of virulence factors, and comparison of pathogenicity of different species will be included in the review. All of the above will be reported as based on published studies of numerous investigators as well as on the research of the author and his group.