Fig 1.
Schematic representation of the two parts of the study, including the number of recruited women and the type and number of the biological samples that were analysed.
Table 1.
Microbiological analysis of milk samples from women with and without symptoms of presumptive “mammary candidiasis” after milk extraction by either manual expression or pumping.
Fig 2.
Microbial counts of milk samples obtained after milk extraction by manual expression (panel A) or pumping (panel B).
Samples from women without painful breastfeeding are marked as "NoP" at the bottom of the figure while samples from women with painful breastfeeding are marked as "P" at the bottom of the figure and are shaded in grey. Abbreviations: Sepi, Staphylococcus epidermidis; Saur, Staphylococcus aureus; Stm/o, Streptococcus mitis/oralis; Stsal, Streptococcus salivarius; Roth, genus Rothia; Cory, genus Corynebacterium; Entb, Enterobacteriaceae; Ogneg, otherGram-negativebacteria; Ytot, yeasts (total); Calb, Candida albicans; Cpar, Candida parapsilosis; Scer, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. *, P<0.05; ***, P<0.001.
Table 2.
Effects and interactions of the pain (presence/absence) during breastfeeding and the mode of extraction (manual/pump) of milk sampleson the microbial counts in milk samples as determined by two-way ANOVA tests.
Table 3.
Microbiological analysis (cultures and PCR assays) of milk samples from 529 women with presumptive symptoms of “mammary candidiasis” after milk extraction by manual expression.
Fig 3.
Optical microscopy observation of milk samples from a woman with presumptive signs of “mammary candidiasis” (A), and from another women without painful breastfeeding (B).
1, Staphylococcus epidermidis cells; 2, T cells; 3, epithelial cells; 4, polymorphonuclear neutrophil. Note the absence of yeasts’ cells.
Fig 4.
TEM images of two nipple biopsies from women with presumptive signs of “mammary candidiasis”.
1, Staphylococcus epidermidis cells. Note the absence of yeasts’ cells.
Fig 5.
TEM image showing a closer view of rapidly dividing Staphylococcus epidermidis cells in a nipple biopsy from a woman with presumptive signs of “mammary candidiasis”.