Comparison of mucosal oral fungal colonization between diabetic patients and non-diabetic individuals in Babylon using molecular identification

Background: Diabetes mellitus is the most predominant endocrine disorders.Nearly, 1.4 million patients have been diagnosed with diabetes in Iraq.This disease can cause a weakened immune system leading to increasing risk of infections with many microbial diseases. Aim and Objective:The aim of this study was to determine the yeast structure in the oral cavity of patients with and without diabetes mellitus and the potential association between serum glucose level (HbA1c) and oral Candida carriage in diabetics via phenotypic and molecular identification, and phylogenetic analysis of isolated yeasts.Materials and Methods: Fungal survey on 64 individuals (age 20-72 yrs.) was divided into two groups 34 diabetic patients and 30 non-diabetic individuals to determine diverse fungal species using molecular and morphological identification isolated from the mucosal oral cavity in both diabetes and non-diabetes in Babylon province, Iraq.Results: The results showed that there were nine common species including Candida albicans, Candida dubliniensis, Candida Africana, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Kluyveromyces sp., Yarrowia sp., Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Nakaseomyces glabratus and Naganishia sp.mostly belonging to Ascomycota in both the diabetic and non-diabetic groups.Molecular and morphological tools such as the Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis and chromogenic media confirmed the identification of these fungi.The isolated fungi were more diverse and frequent in the diabetes patients compared with non-diabetes.C. albicans was the most common species followed by the species Kluyveromyces marxianus.Conclusion: These findings provided significant insight into acknowledgment about the distribution and diversity of commensal yeast in the oral cavity in Babylon province, Iraq, and the risks of expending infections due to alterations in compositions of the microbial communities regarding to health issues.