PMN are more potent in <i>C. albicans</i> phagocytosis than monocytes.

<p>To investigate the influence of a changed PMN to monocytes ratio on the interaction of <i>C. albicans</i> with innate immune cells human whole blood was infected with GFP-expressing fungal cells for in the absence or presence of additional monocytes from the same donor. (A) Increased total monocyte amounts resulted in reduced PMN to monocytes ratios compared to whole-blood samples without (w/o) additional monocytes. Each dot represents the ratio of PMN to monocytes of independent experiments with blood from different donors. The mean standard deviation is given for each experimental condition. (B) During whole-blood infection with increased monocyte amounts <i>C. albicans</i> still predominantly associates with PMN. The percentages of <i>C. albicans</i> associated with PMN (striped bars) or monocytes (black bars) were calculated relative to total <i>C. albicans</i> cells in blood (set to ). All values correspond to the means of three independent experiments with whole blood from different donors.