الفهرس 
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Abstract
Infections caused by Candida species (candidiasis) have greatly increased over recent years, mainly due to the escalation of the AIDS epidemic, population ageing, increasing number of immunocompromised patients and the more widespread use of indwelling medical devices. Candida albicans is the main cause of candidiasis, however, Candida non-albicans (CNA) species such as C. glabrata, C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis are now frequently identified as potential human pathogens. The pathogenic Candida species have developed effective specific virulence strategies to assist their colonization to host tissues, cause disease and overcome host defenses.
This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of oral candidiasis in diabetic patients and its predisposing factors, effects of age and denture wearing on the isolation rate of Candida spp., determination the most common Candida spp. causing oral candidiasis, determination of antifungal susceptibility patterns, the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) values of antifungals for Candida spp., study the effects of some natural medicinal plants on the growth of isolated Candida spp., and assessment their virulence factors (germ tube formation, biofilm formation (BF), extracellular phospholipase (PLs) activity and gelatinase (protease) activity, study some of the differential functional capacity of neutrophils against Candida spp. in diabetics: salivary lysozyme, salivary total protein and flow cytometric analysis for the chemotactic and activation markers of blood neutrophils via the expression of CD181 (a chemoattractant molecule) and CD69 (early activation molecule).
The study included 60 patients with Type-2 DM suspected to have oral candidiasis. They were classified into 2 groups according to culture results:
Group (1): included 40 diabetic patients with confirmed oral Candida infection. (18 of them are removable denture wearers and 22 non denture wearers) and also classified according to their age {26 are middle age (40-60 years) and 14 are elder age (>60years)}
Group (2): included 20 diabetic patients without Candida infection.
The study also included 20 age and sex matched healthy controls to determine the normal levels of laboratory investigations.