Presence of Candida in Oral Dysplastic Lesions -A Casual Involvement or a Causal Role?

Abstract

Previous evidences have suggested a strong association between the presence of Candida albicans and the development of oral epithelial dysplasia/neoplasia. The aim of the present study was to determine the role of C. albicans in the development of oral dysplastic lesions on the basis of quantifying the level of colonization and correlating it with the degree of epithelial dysplasia present. The present study comprised of 50 patients who had different oral dysplastic lesions and showed epithelial dysplasia histopathologically. For the isolation of Candida saliva samples were obtained by oral rinse technique while for the detection of fungal hyphae in the tissue sections biopsy specimens were collected from each patient. Significantly (P=0.002) more number of patients with moderate or severe epithelial dysplasia showed higher level of colonization (over 1000 CFU/ml) than patients with mild epithelial dysplasia. In PAS stained tissue sections hyphae were detected in 33% of the patients with moderate or severe epithelial dysplasia whilst there were no hyphae detected in any of the patients with mild epithelial dysplasia. The difference being statistically highly significant (P=0.001). Thus, the present study reveals a significant correlation between Candida infection and the severity of epithelial dysplasia by showing a statistically significant association between high amount of Candida and moderate or severe epithelial dysplasia.