Fig 1.
Study design: Tetracycline hydrochloride was given in drinking water during days 1 to 18; the P+L+ group corresponded to the animals treated with PDZ and LED light (P+L+); the P-L+ group corresponded to evaluation of LED light alone; the P+L- group corresponded to evaluation of the PS alone; the P-L- group corresponded to infected animals that did not receive any treatment; the NC group corresponded to the healthy and untreated animals.
Fig 2.
White patches or pseudomembrane present on the dorsum of the tongue of the animals infected with C. albicans and not treated 5 to 16 days after infection.
Fig 3.
Kinetics of C. albicans colonization after 5 and 16 days of infection in the established murine model of oral candidiasis.
Fig 4.
Correlation between the scores assigned to oral lesions with the CFU number/mL within the 5 to 16-day period post-infection in the murine model of oral candidiasis (Rs = 0.92; p≤0.0001).
Fig 5.
Mean values of log10 (CFU/mL) obtained for the control and experimental groups.
Different superscript capital letters denote statistical difference between the time intervals assessed (24 hours and 7 days after treatment) and equal superscript lowercase letters denote statistical similarity between the experimental groups (p<0.05). As there was interaction between the factors treatment group and time interval (p≤0.0001) it was performed one-way ANOVA-Welch followed by Games-Howell post-hoc test.
Fig 6.
Representative images of white patches or pseudomembrane (arrow) on the dorsum of the tongue of animals from groups P-L-, P+L-, P-L+ and NYS and absence of tongue lesions of the animals submitted to the aPDT (P+L+), 24 hours (24h) and 7 days (7d) after treatment.
Fig 7.
Representative images of histological sections showing a moderate inflammatory infiltrate (arrows) with innumerous hyphae/pseudohyphae (arrow head) on the keratin layer for the groups P-L-, P+L- and P-L+, and a mild inflammatory infiltrate (arrows) with a few hyphae/pseudohyphae (arrow head) on the keratin layer for the groups treated with NYS and P+L+ 24 hours (24h) and 7 days (7d) after treatment.
Fig 8.
Mean values and standard deviation of the TNF-α gene expression in each experimental group during the time intervals assessed (24 hours and 7 days after treatment).
Equal superscript lowercase letters denote statistical similarity among the groups (p>0.05). Data related to cytokine expression of the groups receiving any treatment were compared with the negative control group (NC). It was performed the two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test to compare the groups according to the different time intervals assessed. As there was no interaction between the factors treatment group and time interval (p = 0.986), the mean values of gene expression obtained in the two periods of time were pooled in the same bar.
Fig 9.
Mean values and standard deviation of the gene expression of IL-1 β assessed for each experimental group depending on the time interval assessed (24 hours and 7 days after treatment).
Equal superscript lowercase letters denote statistical similarity between the groups (p>0.05). Data related to cytokine expression of the groups receiving any treatment were compared with the negative control group (healthy animals). It was performed the two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test to compare the groups according to the different time intervals assessed. As there was no interaction (p = 0.105) between the factors treatment group and time interval, the mean values of gene expression were pooled.
Fig 10.
Mean values and standard deviation of IL-6 gene expression evaluated for each experimental group.
Data related to cytokine expression of the groups receiving any treatment were compared with the negative control group (healthy animals). Different superscript capital letters denote difference between the time intervals assessed (24 hours and 7 days after treatment) and equal superscript lower case letters denote statistical similarity between the experimental group. As there was interaction between the factors treatment group and time interval (p = 0.048) it was performed one-way ANOVA-Welch followed by Games-Howell post-hoc test.