Cultivation of Candida albicans

To cultivate Candida albicans, Merck provides selective dehydrated culture media especially for microbial testing in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry. The yeast Candida albicans is part of the normal human gut and mouth flora. Although 80% of humans will never encounter any harmful symptoms, it can cause opportunistic oral and genital infections and, in immunocompromised patients, even life-threatening diseases. The species is the most common cause of candidiasis.

An adaption strategy of C. albicans is phenotypic switching (or phenotypic dimorphism), whereby the yeast switches between the two forms in which it can grow. When it infects host tissue, it switches from a unicellular form typical of yeasts into its invasive, multicellular filamentous form. Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics manufacturers must ensure that their production environment and finished products do not contain harmful levels of pathogens such as Candida albicans.

Perfect Media for Cultivating Candida albicans

Merck provides consistent and high quality culture media for the enrichment, isolation and enumeration of Candida albicans. These media are available in a variety of formulations as dehydrated culture media and in the form of granules.

Merck’s granulated culture media meet the highest industry performance standards as described in ISO 11133. They are not only convenient but also safe, because the granules cause much less dust in the lab than powdered media. This reduces the hazardous media components in the air that lab personnel may inhale and that can cause allergic reactions. All media from Merck are quality controlled according to the most stringent standards. This guarantees consistent and high quality products.