Epithelial cell innate response to Candida albicans

With the advent of treatments and diseases such as AIDS resulting in increasing numbers of patients with suppressed immune systems, fungal diseases are an escalating problem. Candida albicans is the most common of these fungal pathogens, causing infections in many of these patients. It is therefore important to understand how immunity to this fungus is regulated and how it might be manipulated. Although work has been done to identify the receptors, fungal moieties, and responses involved in anti-Candida immunity, most studies have investigated interactions with myeloid or lymphoid cells. Given that the first site of contact of C. albicans with its host is the mucosal epithelial surface, recent studies have begun to focus on interactions of C. albicans with this site. The results are startling yet in retrospect obvious, indicating that epithelial cells play an important role in these interactions, initiating responses and even providing a level of protection. These findings have obvious implications, not just for fungal pathogens, but also for identifying how host organisms can distinguish between commensal and pathogenic microbes. This review highlights some of these recent findings and discusses their importance in the wider context of infection and immunity.