Candidiasis, human being's main opportunist fungal infection, is caused by Candida, a sort of yeasts which are part of endogenous microflora of the human body. The purpose of this research was to study the Candida species involved in the inflammatory processes of the breastfeeding mothers' nipples from the human milk bank on Assis Chateubriand maternity-school at the Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil. It was verified the enzymatic activities and the susceptibilities to the main used antifungal agents in candidiasis. The samples were collected from the wounds in the nipples and grown in Sabouraud agar at 37°C for 72 hours. They were identified by mycology tests. Proteinasis, phospholipase and hialuronidase tests were also made. Amphotericin B and fluconazole susceptibility tests, too. From the 29 samples, 13 (44. 8%) of the total presented growth; 11 (84.6%) of them were Candida albicans; 01 (7.7%) of them was C. stellatoidea and 01 (7.7%) of them was C. guilliermondii. The C. albicans enzymatic activities were: 100% of strains produced phospholipase; 64% produced hialuronidase and none of the strains produced proteolytic activity. The tested yeasts were susceptive to the antifungal agents tested with minimum inhibitory concentration - 0.125 - 0.5mug/ml for amphotericin B and 2 - 4mug/ml for fluconazol. All the C. albicans strains isolated from the breastfeeding mothers' nipples showed the phospholipase enzyme which can be an important virulence factor. They presented excellent susceptibilities to the antifungal agents tested.
Nipple candidiasis; Breastfeeding mothers Virulence factor; Mastitis; Candida albicans
