FIG. 2.

Clearance of vaginal candidiasis in rats intravaginally administered KP, SP, or fluconazole or untreated. All rats (five per group) were challenged intravaginally with 10⁷ C. albicans cells (strain SA-40) in 0.1 ml of physiological saline on day 0 and then sampled for initial intravaginal CFU. The therapeutics (KP, SP, and fluconazole; 50 μg each) were administered 1, 24, and 48 h after the challenge. Starting on day 1, there was always a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) in the vaginal CFU counts between untreated or SP-treated and KP- or fluconazole-treated rats. No statistically significant difference was at any time point found between SP-treated and untreated animals (except at the last day of measurement), and no statistically significant difference was similarly found at any time point between KP- and fluconazole-treated rats. Statistical significance was assessed by using Student's t test (two-tailed).