Distribution of Malassezia species in Patients with Different Dermatological Disorders and Healthy Individuals

There are differences with respect to the commonly isolated Malassezia species, not only between healthy individuals and the patients with various skin diseases, but also between different countries. We investigated the species composition ofMalasseziamicroflora on the skin of patients withMalassezia-associated diseases and of healthy subjects (HS). Two hundred and fifty skin scrapings from patients with pityriasis versicolor (PV), seborrheic dermatitis (SD), atopic dermatitis (AD), psoriasis (PS), and healthy subjects (HS), fifty each, were inoculated into Sabouraud dextrose agar and into modified Dixon agar and identified using conventional culture-based methods. In PV and PS lesions, the most common species was M. globosa (62% and 52%, respectively), whileM. restricta was predominant in SD lesions (28%).M. sympodialiswas the most common species recovered from AD (52%) and healthy trunk skin (30%). Fewer cultures were positive forMalasseziagrowth in patients with AD than in patients with other skin conditions, and even in controls. Our data are in agreement with other studies and suggest that the pathogenic species of PV isM. globosa. The evidence that any given species is clinically important in the pathogenicity of SD, AD and PS is still lacking. 

Source: Acta Dermatovenerologica Croatica - January 28, 2017 Category: Dermatology Source Type: research