Survival Strategies of Aspergillus in the Human Body

Abstract

The human body is a hostile environment for Aspergillus species, which originally live outside the human body. There are lots of elimination mechanisms against Aspergillus inhaled into the human body, such as high body temperature, soluble lung components, mucociliary clearance mechanism, or responses of phagocytes. Aspergillus fumigatus, which is the primary causative agent of human infections among the human pathogenic species of Aspergillus, defend itself from the hostile human body environment by various mechanisms, such as thermotolerance, mycotoxin production, and characteristic morphological features. Here we review mechanisms of defense in Aspergillus against elimination from the human body.