Blood group glycolipids as epithelial cell receptors for Candida albicans

The role of glycosphingolipids as possible epithelial cell receptors for Candida albicans was examined by investigating the binding of biotinylated yeasts to lipids extracted from human buccal epithelial cells and separated on thin-layer chromatograms. Binding was visualized by the addition of 125I-streptavidin followed by autoradiography. Five C. albicans strains thought from earlier work to have a requirement for fucose-containing receptors all bound to the same three components in the lipid extract. A parallel chromatogram overlaid with biotinylated Ulex europaeus lectin, which is a fucose-binding lectin with a specificity for the H blood group antigen, showed that two of these glycosphingolipids carried this antigenic determinant. Preparations of crude and purified adhesin (a protein with a size of 15.7 kDa which lacked cysteine residues) from one of the strains also bound to these same two components. The third glycosphingolipid, which bound whole cells but neither preparation of adhesin, was recognized by Helix pomatia lectin, indicating that it contained N-acetylgalactosamine, possibly in the form of the A blood group antigen. Overlay assays with a sixth strain of C. albicans (GDH 2023) revealed a completely different binding pattern of four receptors, each of which contained N-acetylglucosamine. These results confirm earlier predictions about the receptor specificity of the strains made on the basis of adhesion inhibition studies and indicate that blood group antigens can act as epithelial cell receptors for C. albicans.