It has been suggested that patients with pulmonary surfactant impairment are more susceptible to Pneumocystis infection than healthy controls. Owing the fact that most patients with pulmonary surfactant impairment also suffer from hypoxia, we explored the effect of intermittent hypobaric hypoxia conditions on the ability of non-immunocompromised rats infected by endotracheal route with P. carin...

Pneumocystis carinii synthesizes sterols with a double bond at C-7 of the sterol nucleus and an alkyl group with one or two carbons at C-24 of the side chain. Also, some human-derived Pneumocystis carinii f. sp. hominis strains contain lanosterol derivatives with an alkyl group at C-24. These unique sterols have not been found in other pathogens of mammalian lungs. Thus, P. carinii may have imp...

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) remains the most common opportunistic infection among human immunodeficiency virus-infected persons. Despite this, little is known concerning the transmission dynamics of this infection. In the absence of a reliable method to isolate and culture P. carinii from environmental samples, it has not been possible to assess the importance of person-to-person trans...

The progression of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia was temporally monitored and quantified by real-time polymerase chain reaction of P. carinii-specific DNA in oral swabs and lung homogenates from infected rats. DNA levels correlated with the number of P. carinii organisms in the rats' lungs, as enumerated by microscopic methods. This report is the first of a noninvasive, antemortem method that ...

Pneumocystis carinii interacts with glycoproteins present in the lower respiratory tract through its mannose-rich surface antigen complex termed gpA. Surfactant protein D (SP-D) is a recently described component of the airspace lining material that possesses a calcium-dependent lectin domain capable of interacting with glycoconjugates present on microorganisms and leukocytes. Accordingly, we ev...

Pneumocystis f. sp. hominis causes pneumonia in immunocompromised persons. In order to determine the types and distribution of P. carinii organisms within a single human lung, multiple samples were obtained from the lung of a child who died of P. carinii pneumonia. P. carinii DNA was detected in all of the samples and 2 different genotypes of P. carinii were identified, with uneven distribution...

The dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS) gene from Pneumocystis carinii isolated from non-human primates was amplified using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced to analyse point mutations associated with sulfa resistance. P. carinii DHPS gene amplification was obtained from eight lung samples from five New World primate species and one Old World primate species. None of the animals had b...

BACKGROUND Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia was thought to occur from reactivation of latent infection, but recent studies with the polymerase chain reaction have failed to detect P carinii in normal subjects. If pneumocystis pneumonia is therefore caused by new infection the source and mode of transmission of P carinii remains unknown. METHODS Natural exposure to P carinii was detected by meas...