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Mycopathologia (2013) 176:175181 DOI 10.1007/s11046-013-9678-4
Impact of Eating Probiotic Yogurt on Colonization by Candida Species of the Oral and Vaginal Mucosa in HIV-Infected and HIV-Uninfected Women
Haihong Hu Daniel J. Merenstein Cuiwei Wang
Pilar R. Hamilton Mandy L. Blackmon Hui Chen
Richard A. Calderone Dongmei Li
Received: 29 April 2013 / Accepted: 3 July 2013 / Published online: 8 August 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
AbstractBackground Candidiasis in HIV/AIDS patients continues to be a public health problem. Antifungal therapies are not always effective and may result in complications, such as the development of drug-resistant strains of Candida species.
Objectives This study evaluated the impact of pro-biotic consumption on Candida colonization of the oral and vaginal mucosa.
Patients/Methods A pilot study was conducted in 24 women (17 HIV-infected, 7 HIV-uninfected) from the WomensInteragencyHIV Study.Thewomenunderwent a 60-day initiation period with no probiotic consumption, followed by two 15-day consumption periods, with a different probiotic yogurt (DanActiveTM or YoPlusTM yogurt) during each interval. There was a 30-day washout period between the two yogurt consumption periods. Oral and vaginal culture swabs were collected on days 0, 60,
74, and 120. Candida was detected by inoculating each swab in both Sabourauds dextrose agar with or without chloramphenicol and CHROMagar.
Results Less fungal colonization among women was observed when the women consumed probiotic yogurts (54 % of the women had vaginal fungal colonization during the non-probiotic yogurt consumption period, 29 % during the DanActiveTM
period, and 38 % during YoPlusTM yogurt consumption period), and HIV-infected women had signicantly lower vaginal fungal colonization after they consumed DanActiveTM yogurt compared to the non-intervention periods (54 vs 29 %, p = 0.03). Conclusions These data are promising, but as expected in a small pilot study, there were some signicant changes but also some areas where colonization was not changed. This type of conicting data is supportive of the need for a larger trial to further elucidate the role of probiotic yogurts in fungal growth in HIV-infected women.
Keywords Probiotics Vulvovaginal
candidiasis Oral candidiasis Candida HIV
Opportunistic infections
Introduction
Mucosal candidiasis, which includes oropharyngeal (thrush), esophageal, and vaginalcandidiasis, iscommon among people infected with HIV [1]. Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is one of the most common infections
H. Hu C. Wang P. R. Hamilton M. L. Blackmon