The Effect of Silicone Oil on In Vitro Growth and Some Virulence Factors of Candida albicans

Objective: Vitrectomy and silicone oil injection has been widely used in the treatment of endophthalmitis. We aimed to study the effect of silicon oil on some virulence factors (germ tube formation, phospholipase activity and adherence of buccal epithelial cells) and in vitro growth of Candida albicans, the most common cause of fungal endophthalmitis. Material and Methods: In this study, the suspension of C albicans (ATCC 90028) was added into tubes that contain silicone oil, brain heart infusion (BHI) and saline solution (SS) and then was subcultered on sabouroud dextrose agar (SDA) for quantitative colony counts every day for 21 days. The cultures were examined for virulence factors including germ tube formation, phospholipase activity and adherence to buccal epithelial cells of C albicans with or without exposure to silicone oil. Results: While the growth in the BHI and SS continued until day 21, the growth in silicone oil started to decrease after day 5 and disappeared on day 16. Germ tube formation, phospholipase activity and adherence to buccal epithelial cells did not show any variation between silicone oil treated and non-treated C albicans. Conclusion: Silicone oil inhibited the in vitro growth of C albicans but the virulence factors including germ tube formation, phospholipase activity and adherence to buccal epithelial cells did not show a significant difference