The Effect of Nutritive and Non-Nutritive Sweeteners on the Growth, Adhesion, and Biofilm Formation of Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of glucose, sucrose, and saccharin on growth, adhesion, and biofilm formation of Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The growth rates of mono-cultures of planktonic C. albicans and C. tropicalis and 1:1 mixed co-cultures were determined in yeast nitrogen broth supplemented with 5% (30 mM) and 10% (60 mM) glucose, sucrose, and saccharin, using optical density measurements at 2-h intervals over a 14-h period. Adhesion and biofilm growth were performed and the growth quantified using a standard 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The biofilm architecture was visualized using scanning electron microscopy. One- and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to analyse the differences among multiple means.

RESULTS: The highest planktonic growth was noted in 5% glucose after 14 h (p < 0.05). No significant planktonic growth was observed in either concentration of saccharin. Both the concentrations of glucose and sucrose elicited significantly increased adhesion from MTT activity of 0.017 to >0.019 in mono- as well as co-cultures (p < 0.05), whilst the lower concentration of saccharin significantly dampened the adhesion. Maximal biofilm growth was observed in both species with the lower concentration of sucrose (5%), although a similar concentration of saccharin abrogated biofilm development: the highest MTT value (>0.35) was obtained for glucose and the lowest (>0.15) for saccharin.

CONCLUSION: In this study, glucose and sucrose accelerated the growth, adhesion, and biofilm formation of Candida species. However, the non-nutritive sweetener saccharin appeared to dampen, and in some instances suppress, these virulent attributes of Candida.