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Updated: Jul 9, 2025
Deep Dermal Injection As a Model of Candida albicans Skin Infection for Histological Analyses
Published on: June 13, 2018
Antimicrobial peptide-producing dermal preadipocytes defend against Candida albicans skin infection via the
Jianing Wang1, Zhimin Duan1, Rong Zeng1
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Skin Diseases and Sexually Transmitted Infections, Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing, China.
Abstract:
Dermal fibroblasts (dFBs) defend against deep bacterial skin infections by differentiating into preadipocytes (pAds) that produce the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin; this differentiation is known as the dermal reactive adipogenesis response. However, the role of dFBs in fungal infection remains unknown. Here, we found that cathelicidin-producing pAds were present in high numbers in skin lesions from patients with cutaneous Candida granulomas. Second, we showed that dermal Candida albicans (C. albicans) infection in mice robustly triggered the dermal reactive adipogenesis response and induced cathelicidin expression, and inhibition of adipogenesis with pharmacological inhibitors of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) impaired skin resistance to C. albicans. In vitro, C. albicans products induced cathelicidin expression in pAds, and differentiating pAds markedly suppressed the growth of C. albicans by producing cathelicidin. Finally, we showed that C. albicans induced an antimicrobial response in pAds through the FGFR-MEK-ERK pathway. Together, our data reveal a previously unknown role of dFBs in the defense against skin infection caused by C. albicans.
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