FIG 5 .

Gastrointestinal infection of Mucho in the murine host. (A) Groups of BALB/c mice were infected with the Mucho isolate (10⁶) via oral gavage. The fecal samples from three infected diabetic mice displayed Mucor mycelia after 24 h of incubation at 30°C, indicating that Mucor can survive the passage through the GI tract. The figure depicts feces from noninfected (left) and infected (right) diabetic mice on YPD medium at day 1 p.i. (incubated for 24 h at 30°C). Scale = 100 µm. (B) Body weights of mice after fungal spore challenge did not exhibit apparent differences from those of uninfected controls. Top, nondiabetic mice; bottom, mice rendered diabetic with streptozocin treatment. (C) The colons from infected mice (2, 5, and 10 days postinfection) tended to be shorter than those from uninfected mice (2 and 5 days p.i.). However, due to the low numbers of samples, this result is not supported statistically.