Effect of Estrogen on Hyphal-Wall Protein Expression in Candida Albicans

Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Patrice Bouyer

College

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Discipline(s)

Cell Biology, Microbiology

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-24-2025

Abstract

The commensal fungus Candida albicans can change its morphology to a pathogenic filamentous form under certain conditions and cause systemic infections in critically ill (with elevated estrogen levels) or immunocompromised patients. Pregnant women are also more likely to develop vulvovaginal candidiasis. Both of these observations point to increased estrogen (E2) levels as filament inducing. Several studies have previously investigated the effects of E2 and found conflicting results. However, these studies differ in methods of evaluating filamentation. We aim to provide clarity to estrogen’s effect on C. albicans filamentation by studying C. albicans grown in liquid media exposed to estrogen concentrations near the pathophysiological range using quantitative PCR. We used fetal bovine serum (FBS) as a positive control as FBS is a well established promoter of filamentation. We used the hyphal-wall protein 1 (HWP1) gene, whose expression increases during filamentation, as a filamentous reporter. We set up five experimental conditions: a negative control (yeast media alone), 1 nM estrogen, solvent (EtOH), 10% FBS vol/vol, and both 1 nM E2 and 10% FBS vol/vol. Expression of HWP1 was evaluated using qPCR normalized to expression of 26S rRNA. Our results show a twofold increase in relative HWP1 expression in the presence of estrogen, as well as with FBS (positive control). We found an additive effect of E2 when combined with FBS, producing a threefold increase in relative HWP1 expression. Our preliminary results suggest that estrogen alone may be capable of causing C. albicans filamentation and represent a cue to becoming pathogenic.

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