Aspergillus terreus

Fungus

This fillamentous fungus was isolated from a bronchial washing from on of our patients.

Aspergillus terreus is a cosmopolitan fungus although probably more prevalent in subtropical and tropical regions. In nature, it can be isolated from various sources such as grains, compost, straw, soil and decomposing plant material.

Macroscopic Appearance;
Colonies on Sabouraud-Dextrose Agar media appeared as rapidly growing powdery colonies with a characteristic buff or cinnamon-brown colour on the surface and a yellow to beige-brown colour on the reverse.

Microscopic Appearance;
-hyphae are septate and hyaline
-conidiophores are smooth walled and hyaline
-biseriate phialides, extending from the upper portion of the vesicle
-conidia form in long chains are round, smooth walled
-aleurioconida are less conspicuous and can be found on the submerged hyphae. Digging out a minute portion of the hyphae with a straight wire and squashing it under a cover slip may better reveal their presence. The appear singly as round to ovoid with truncate bases. Aleurioconidia production has been demonstrated to correlate with additional pathogenicity

Pathogenicity;
Species is a rare cause of allergic or invasive bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and noscomial infections have been reported. Implicated in a wide range of human infections from opthalmic, cutaneous pulmonary as well as disseminated infections. Increased morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients.

Demonstrated resistance to Amphoteracin B treatment.

Culture metabolites used in the pharmaceutical industry as a source for the production of statins employed in cholesterol lowering drugs.

Photos of 72 hour A.terreus stained with Lactophenol Cotton Blue under 400X magnification.

Intended as couple of Wallpapers however, resized by Google Blogger


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