Protothecosis and experimental research on prototheca wickerhamii

摘要

prototheca is a rare opportunistic pathogenic fungus, which can cause animal and human disease known as protothecosis. There are three clinical types in human protothecosis: dermal lesion, eningitis and systematic protothecsis. A strain of Prototheca was isolated frm a biopsied nodule specimen on the face of a woman patient in 1997, which was isolated and cultured on the basis of experimental studies of its physiological characters, examined under optic and electronic microscopes for its morphological and ultra-structural characteristics. The organism was also examined biochemically through direct tissue tabletting and histopathologic section and this case of face infection was finally identified as protothecosis caused by Prototheca wickerhamii. The biological characters of Prototheca and the relating human diseases were also discussed in many aspects.