[Investigation of some virulence factors of Trichosporon asahii strains isolated from the clinical samples of hospitalized patients]. / Hastanede yatan hastalarin klinik orneklerinden izole edilen Trichosporon asahii suslarinda bazi virulans faktörlerinin arastirilmasi.

ABSTRACT

In this study, acid proteinase, phospholipase and esterase activities, slime production and hydrophobic properties of a total of 48 Trichosporon asahii strains isolated from urine (43), peritoneal fluid (1), tongue swab sample (1), blood (1), nephrostomy (1) and one saprophyte strain from nail sample, were investigated. In none of the 48 strains, acid proteinase and phospholipase activities could be detected, while all were found to be esterase positive. In hydrocarbon assay performed with n-hexadecane, four strains exhibited moderate hydrophobicity, while 43 strains showed low level hydrophobicity and one strain was found to be negative. In the second procedure to measure hydrophobicity by using microspheres assay, the results were found to differ among the strains, with the lowest and the highest values between 53.2% and 92.7%. Establishing the production of slime, modified tube assay was performed. Ten strains were found to be moderate producers (++), 18 strains were weakly positive (+) and 20 strains were defined as non-slime producers. Since the current data on virulence factors of T. asahii is insufficient already, these results may contribute to the present data in the literature.