Mice with persistent gastrointestinal Candida albicans as a model for antifungal therapy.

Persistent infection of the gastrointestinal tract of CFW mice with Candida albicans was produced by the oral-intragastric inoculation of 6-day-old infants. Other intraabdominal organs (liver, kidneys, and spleen) were usually free of the organism in survivors at 20 days of age. However, all survivors retained high levels of the organism in the stomach and intestinal tract at 30 days of age. The possible utility of these persisting C. albicans infections of the gastrointestinal tract for the study of the efficacy of short-term antifungal therapy was studied. Drug treatment was initiated for a 2-week period when the survivors were 15 to 19 days old. Some representative antifungal agents in current use (i.e., amphotericin B, 5-fluorocytosine, and miconazole) effected significant reductions in the numbers of C. albicans in homogenates of gastrointestinal organs.