Abstract
The antifungal effects of polyphosphates on growth of Candida albican and Trichophyton mentagrophytes were studied. The polyphosphates with chain length of 15, 45, and 75 were inhibitory to growth of fungi whereas no inhibition was shown by pyrophosphate. As chain length increase, the more inhibitory effect of the polyphosphates on fungal growth was observed. The concentration of polyphosphate at $800\;{\mu}g/ml$ completely inhibited the growth of fungus. Supplementation of the medium with $Mg^{2+}\;and\;Ca^{2+}$ reduced inhibitory effect of polyphosphate on growth of C. albican treatment of C. albican with polyphosphate, the release of nucleic acid out of cell was observed. When C. albican exposed to polyphosphate were examined, profound changes of cell morphology such as cell swelling and surface blebs were observed. In addition, propidium iodide, membrane impermeable dye, stained the nucleus of C. albican cell treated with polyphosphate. Therefore, it is proposed that the antifungal activity of polyphosphate might be related with its chelation effect to essential cation components of fungal cell wall or membrane.
Polyphosphate의 Candida albicans와 Trichophyton mentagrophytes에 대한 항진균 작용에 대하여 연구하였다. 평균 사슬길이가 15, 45, 75인 polyphosphate는 진균에 대하여 성장억제 효과를 나타낸 반면, pyrophosphate는 성장억제 효과가 없었다. 사슬길이가 증가함에 따라서 진균 성장억제 효과가 증가하는 것으로 관찰되었으며 $800\;{\mu}g/ml$ 농도에서는 균주의 성장을 완전히 억제시켰다. $Mg^{2+}$나 $Ca^{2+}$의 첨가는 polyphosphate의 성장억제 효과를 감소시켰다. Polyphosphate를 처리한 C. albicans에서는 핵산물질의 유리가 관찰되었으며, 세포 swelling이나 표면돌출과 같은 세포형태 변화도 관찰되었다. 세포막 불투과성 물질인 propidium iodide는 Polyphosphate를 처리한 C. albicans의 핵을 염색하는 것이 관찰되었다. Polyphosphate의 항진균 작용은 polyphosphate가 진균 세포벽이나 세포막의 필수 양이온에 대한 chelation 효과에 의한 것으로 사려된다.
