Abstract
Secondary fungal infections within burn wound injuries are a significant problem that delay wound healing and increase the risk of patient mortality. Currently, little is known about how fungi colonize and infect burn tissue or how the host responds to pathogen presence. In this report, we expand upon an existing thermal injury model using zebrafish larvae to begin to elucidate both the host immune response to fungal burn colonization and fungal mechanisms for persistence within burn tissue. We found that both Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans , common fungal burn wound isolates, successfully colonize burn tissue and are effectively cleared in immunocompetent zebrafish by both macrophages and neutrophils. We also find that C. albicans mutants harboring mutations that impact their ability to evade host immune system recognition are cleared more readily from burn tissue. Collectively, our work highlights the efficacy of using zebrafish to study host-fungal interaction dynamics within burn wounds.
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