universidade de são paulo - Faculdade de Odontologia - Unesp

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to acrylic surfaces of Candida glabrata, Candida krusei and Candida albicans has
also been observed [7,8]. Moreover, higher cell surface hydrophobicity and
greater avidity to acrylic of Candida glabrata as compared with Candida albicans
has been observed [8]. Thus, these results suggest that hydrophilic surfaces could
inhibit the adherence of Candida to acrylic surfaces, particularly the adherence of
relatively hydrophobic fungal cells [4], such as Candida glabrata.
Efforts have been made to modify acrylic resins in order to decrease the
adherence of Candida spp [4,9-14]. However, few studies evaluate the
effectiveness of these approaches against the adhesion of Candida glabrata [4].
Among the methods for surface modification, there is the glow-discharge plasma
treatment, a type of cold plasma. This treatment is a gaseous mixture comprising
high energy electrons, ions, ultraviolet photons and reactive neutral species with
energy to break covalent bonds on the material surface and, thus, to change its
characteristics [15]. As gas temperature can remain as low as room temperature
[16], an advantage of this technique is that it allows the treatment of materials that
cannot be subjected to high temperatures [15], such as denture base acrylic resins.
Despite these advantages, in dentistry, the glow-discharge plasma treatment has
received little attention [17,18]. Moreover, there is no information about the
adhesion of Candida glabrata to plasma treated denture base acrylic resin.
Some studies also have demonstrated that the salivary pellicle is involved
in adherence of Candida to acrylic. However, the role of saliva during initial
adhesion and biofilm formation of Candida is poorly understood. While some
studies have demonstrated that the saliva pellicle increased the colonization of