Adhesion of Candida albicans to polythene in Sodium hypochlorite disinfected aquatic microcosm and potential impact of cell surface properties

adhesion of C. albicans cells harvested from different growth stages to polythene in Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) treated water, under static and dynamic conditions was carried out. With cells harvested from the lag, exponential, stationary and decline growth phases, the highest abundance of cells adhered was respectively 0.75, 1.18, 0.85 and 0.95 units (Log (CFU/cm²)), when considering the static and dynamic experimental condition. The hydrophobicity values ranged respectively from 17 to 99, 45 to 93, 8 to 93, and from 10 to 83 %. The increase in incubation duration was significantly correlated (P<0.01) to the decrease in the abundance of adhered C. albicans when considering the NaOCl concentrations used. The increase in the NaOCl concentration in water was significantly correlated (P<0.01) to the increase in the abundance C. albicans adhered to polythene when considering the incubation durations. An increase in NaOCl concentration in the water seems significantly correlated with the decrease of the abundance of C. albicans adhered to the substrate (P<0.01) when considering each cell growth phase. Using the H (Kruskal-Wallis) test to compare the registered mean abundances of cells adhered to polythene after living in water treated with various concentrations of NaOCl with respect to the growth phase, a significant difference (P<0.05) was noted with cells coming from the exponential, stationary and decline growth stages. The adhesion of C. albicans to polythene seems to be impacted by various factors with some depending on the cells status.