Relationship of dermal and pulmonary sensitivity to extracts of Candida albicans.

Extracts of Candida albicans were fractionated and purified to study the antigenic components known to cause late dermal and bronchial reactions in patients with asthma. Skin tests with purified polysaccharide fraction and protein fraction from extracts of Candida albicans in a sensitive man revealed that the polysaccharide fraction elicited an immediate reaction and the protein fraction provoked an immediate or delayed reaction, or both. Twenty-three inhalation tests with these fractions were performed in 20 asthmatic patients. Among 13 patients with cutaneous reactions, asthma of immediate or delayed nature was induced in 12. Six of seven subjects with no cutaneous reaction had no respiratory response. Considering previous observations on the antigenicity of extracts of Candida albicans in guinea pigs, it was concluded that antigenic substances of immediate hypersensitivity were included in the polysaccharide fraction whereas the protein fraction contained those of the delayed type as well.