PubMed · 3698556
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G A Sarosi, S F Davies. 1986. Blastomycosis.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3698556/
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Except for isolated case reports, blastomycosis has not been identified as a significant problem in immunosuppressed patients. We describe an unusual case with blastomycotic infection of a cerebral glioma in a 56-year-old man who underwent radiotherapy for his tumor and died of fulminant blastomycotic pneumonia. This is believed to be the first reported case of Blastomyces dermatitidis infection of a cerebral glioma. The light microscopic and ultrastructural features of B. dermatitidis, the giant forms of which were encountered in our patient, are described, and thr role of immunosuppression due to steroid therapy in the pathogenesis of this fulminant infection are reviewed.
The efficacy of 20 seed-based media is reported for the in vitro mould-yeast conversion of Blastomyces dermatitidis, employing pharmamedia agar, peptone glucose agar, glucose agar and water agar as controls. The mould-yeast conversion varied significantly according to the culture medium, fungal strains and incubation period (p less than 0.01). Garden-pea, chick-pea, cow-pea, soybean, peanut, green gram, French bean, lentil, okra and cottonseed converted all of the 7 B. dermatitidis test strains after 5 days of incubation at 37 degrees C. Although the efficacy of many of these seed media was found to be at par with pharmamedia agar - a commercial cottonseed embryo-derived protein, garden-pea seed agar is adopted because of the wider availability and low fat content of this seed. The recommended composition of the medium comprises 2% aqueous seed extract, 2% glucose and pH 6-7. Only nigerseed and sunflower seeds failed to support the conversion of B. dermatitidis. Of the control media, peptone glucose agar, glucose agar and water agar did not support the conversion of 2 of the B. dermatitidis test strains. The mechanism underlying variable mould-yeast conversion of B. dermatitidis on seed-based media is not clearly understood. However, most of the seeds supporting excellent mould-yeast conversion are known for their high protein content. The conversion was apparently not affected by the fat content of the seeds or by incorporation of glucose in the medium.
We examined colonial phenotypes of five isolates of Blastomyces dermatitidis at 33, 35 and 37 degrees C on four growth media. Three different colony types were identified: yeast, mycelial, and a mixed type consisting of both yeast and mycelia. Each isolate varied in its ability to grow on the different media and at different temperatures, and in the types of colonies it produced in the various temperature-media combinations. Quantification of the number of nuclei per yeast cell by fluorescent staining revealed no correlation between the number of nuclei per cell and the colonial phenotype. These results indicate that the colonial phenotype of B. dermatitidis varies with the isolate as well as with temperature and culture medium, but is not correlated with the number of nuclei per yeast. These findings could provide a start towards typing B. dermatitidis isolates.