Diagnosis of a chronic vaginitis: Characterization of Candida albicans and in vitro antagonistic activities of vaginal Lactobacillus

Abstract

Long-term use of antibiotics, in the treatment of vaginal infection can lead to Candida overgrowth. The motive of the present study was real case of a woman with chronic vaginitis. During ten years, the patient was subjected to a treatment with antibiotics such as gentamycin and lincomycin. Following remarks of a gynecologist, the complicated infection showed like yeast vaginitis symptoms. Consequently we isolated the germ from a vaginal swab sample taken from the patient, and then it was identified phenotypically and belonged to Candida albicans. Our study was followed by examination of the effects of pH, temperature and growth media on the morphogenesis of the isolated C. albicans. The results showed that pH 7.4, temperature at 37 °C and glucose free medium were optimal conditions for filamentation. In order to study the antagonistic effect of vaginal lactobacilli against C. albicans, we used 23 Lactobacilli isolated from several healthy women. The results showed that all isolates had an inhibitory effect against C. albicans with a maximal zone of 25.67 ± 0.58 mm obtained by the isolate L17.