<i>C. albicans</i> predominantly associates with PMN and is killed rapidly.

<p>(A) Time-dependent increase of <i>C. albicans</i> association with blood cells as determined by flow cytometry. The majority of <i>C. albicans</i> cells associated to PMN whereas only low interactions could be observed for monocytes and no association to lymphocytes was detectable. 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 five independent experiments with whole blood from five different donors. (B) Representative blood smears of <i>C. albicans</i>-infected blood after (a), (b), (c) and (d) demonstrate continuous filamentation of extracellular fungi (I). Ingested <i>C. albicans</i> (black arrows) were mainly found in PMN and showed different morphotypes. (C) Survival assay of <i>C. albicans</i> exposed to human whole blood shows a rapid killing of the fungus within of infection. Each dot represents <i>C. albicans</i> colony forming units (<i>C. a.</i> CFU/ml blood) of independent experiments with blood from different donors. The mean standard deviation is given for each time point.