Fungi as Causative agent of nasal polyps

Nasal polyposis is an inflammatory condition of unknown etiology that involves nasal and sinus mucous membrane. These polyps can impair a person's quality of life by nasal obstruction, recurrent sinusitis, persistent postnasal drainage, hyposmia, anosmia, changes in sense of taste and even bony destruction. It has been shown that chronic inflammation causes a reactive hyperplasia of the intranasal mucosal membrane which results in the formation of polyps. Recently, fungal elements were suspected to be the causative agent of chronic rhinosinusitis and a fungal etiology has been proposed to underlie severe nasal polyposis. The present study was undertaken to determine the role of fungi in development of nasal polyps. In this study resected polyps from 100 patients were examined by mycological and pathological methods for the presence of fungi. Fungal elements were shown in 9 samples by mycological methods and isolated fungi were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus and Rhizopus sp. Tissue invasion by fungi also was seen by histopathological examination in 6 patients. Therefore, fungi could be considered as the causative factor in the development of nasal polyposis in those patients and since medical treatment of nasal polyps have become increasingly recognized in recent years, the present study also implying the benefits of topical antifungal therapy in such cases

Protein pattern of penicillium species isolated from natural sources in Iran

Farctionation of diffecent penicillium species based on protein bands. In this study penicillium citrinum, penicillium oxalicum, penicillium notatum and penicillium frequentes isolated from air in Iran have been compared for their protein pattern antigens. First, the isolates were cultured on sabouraud dextrose agar medium and then subcultured on czapex agar and were maintained on 30°C for 48-72h. Then they were cultured on sobouraud broth medium for preparing protein extracts, and braudford method was used for measuring the level of protein. The proteins were differentiated using SDS-PAGE with 10% separating gel. Coomassie blue G250 was used for staining. 34 protein band with molecular weight of: 19.5, 24, 26, 27, 28.5, 32, 36, 39, 45, 48, 50, 52, 53, 55, 56.5, 59.5, 63, 65, 66.5, 68, 76, 84, 88, 90, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, 107, 116, 123, 128 and 158 kD were observed. The bands 19.5, 24, 28.5, 45, 52, 53, 56.5, 59.5, 76, 84 and 97kD were present in all 30 isolates under study. The results, indicate that there are inter species and intra species differences but there is no significant difference in protein patterns of the isolates