Vasculitis and anaphylactoid shock induced in mice by cell wall extract of the fungus Candida metapsilosis

Abstract

To investigate whether cell wall mannan from Candida metapsilosis induces vasculitis similar to that in Kawasaki syndrome and ana- phylactoid shock in mice, we examined the pathogenic effects of C. metapsilosis cell wall extracts. Our results show that intraperitoneal injection of cell wall extracts induced severe coronary arteritis, and intravenous injection induced acute anaphylactoid shock similar to extracts from Candida albicans (C. Albicans). Structural analysis of cell wall mannan from C. metapsilosis using NMR spectroscopy showed it to contain only α-mannan, indicating that α-mannan might be contributing to Candida pathogenicity by inducing coronary arteritis and acute shock.