Resolution of candidal lesions of the dorsal rat tongue by ketoconazole.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the mucosal alterations of the dorsal rat tongue produced by Candida albicans infection were reversible upon treatment with the antifungal drug ketoconazole. Following experimentally-produced infection, 17 rats showed clinical evidence of persistent lesions over a period of 20 weeks. Eight of these animals were then treated with ketoconazole daily for 2 weeks (20 mg/kg/day). Appropriate non-infected controls and ketoconazole-only controls were also maintained. Five weeks after the ketoconazole treatment, all animals were killed and the dorsal tongues evaluated clinically and histologically. Control groups showed no abnormalities. Of the 8 animals in the treated-lesion group, all showed lesional resolution, while only 2 of the 9 animals in the untreated-lesion group showed resolution of their lesions (p = 0.002). These findings indicate that the epithelial changes produced by this candidal isolate for this period of time are reversible.