Candida albicans adherence in newborn infants.

Adherence of Candida albicans to buccal epithelial cells from full-term infants was significantly lower than adherence to epithelial cells from premature infants and healthy school-age children, until the full-term infants reached 5 days of age. Adherence in premature infants (gestational age 28-39 weeks) at birth was more than twice that of term infants and remained unchanged during the first week of life. Differences in Candida adherence in premature and term newborns may be due to developmental, salivary, receptor site or other unknown factors.