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Cytotoxicity of Aspergillus strains isolated from the neonatal intensive care unit environment.

PURPOSE
It is essential in the medical care for immunocompromised patients that the environment should create minimal infection risk. Particularly, it concerns fungal infections. Fungi belonging to the Aspergillus genus are second frequent group of nosocomial pathogens producing opportunistic infections.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
The objective of the study was evaluation of prevalence and cytotoxicity of selected Aspergillus strains isolated from the neonatal intensive care unit environment. During 5 consecutive days, 30 samples of indoor air and 120 imprints from the ward environment were collected. Cytotoxicity of 17 strains was evaluated using a MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl) 2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide) test.


RESULTS
Mean numbers of fungi in the indoor air varied from 50 to 2370 c.f.u.xm-3 while in the imprints from 0.04 to 8.83 c.f.u.xcm-2. Moulds were isolated from most of the materials. All of the 17 strains subject to MTT test were cytotoxic.


CONCLUSION
All of the Aspergillus strains isolated from the neonatal intensive care unit were cytotoxic. Cytotoxic Aspergillus strains present in the environment of immunocompromised patients may be potentially dangerous to them.