Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular parasite of eucaryotic cells. Little is known about the role of the host in supporting chlamydial replication beyond the facts that host cells provide ATP and that de novo host protein synthesis is not required for bacterial growth. To further explore potential contributions of host nuclear function to chlamydial development, we questioned whet...

The 24-hour delay between seeding coverslips with cells and inoculating samples for culture of chlamydiae was reduced to less than 1 hour by using coverslips which had been pre-treated with glutaraldehyde-activated gamma-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane. Treated coverslips were not toxic for McCoy cells and even one year after treatment monolayers formed rapidly on them. Furthermore, all of 13 Chlam...

Chlamydiae are important pathogens and symbionts with unique cell biological features. They lack the cell-division protein FtsZ, and the existence of peptidoglycan (PG) in their cell wall has been highly controversial. FtsZ and PG together function in orchestrating cell division and maintaining cell shape in almost all other bacteria. Using electron cryotomography, mass spectrometry and fluores...

Following the chlamydial exposure, a series of events occur in host belonging to innate and adaptive immune systems. The first line defense against infections is mucosal secretions contain various antimicrobial peptides. complement system that can be part triggered by elementary bodies Chlamydiae. Chlamydiae escape from infect epithelial cells. are protected phagolysosome fusion generating incl...

Several aspects of the adherence of purified elementary bodies (EB) of Chlamydia trachomatis to HeLa and to McCoy cells were examined using different techniques, including an ELISA. Serovar-specific, biotinylated monoclonal antibodies were used to detect cell-bound chlamydiae. In addition, purified chlamydiae were biotinylated and their adherence properties were studied. The assays were done at...

The cytopathic effect of the polyarthritis strain of Chlamydia psittaci was studied in cultured bovine fetal spleen cells and found to be mediated by the release of lysosomal enzymes into the host cytoplasm during the late stages of chlamydial development. Ultrastructural cytochemical analysis and cell fractionation studies of infected cells revealed a close relationship between the stage of ch...

Over the last several years, four different phages of chlamydiae, in addition to a phage associated with Chlamydia psittaci isolated from an ornithosis infection in ducks over 25 years ago, have been described and characterized. While these phages and their chlamydial host specificities have been characterized in vitro, there is virtually nothing known about the interaction of the phage with ch...

Nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB) is an inflammatory transcription factor that plays an important role in the host immune response to infection. The potential for chlamydiae to activate NFκB has been an area of interest, however most work has focused on chlamydiae impacting human health. Given that inflammation characteristic of chlamydial infection may be associated with severe disease outcomes or...

We used inhibitors of receptor-mediated endocytosis to study the mechanisms of infectivity, especially the uptake mechanism, of Chlamydia trachomatis for cultured cells. The effect of methylamine and monodansylcadaverine on the different stages of the chlamydial growth cycle in McCoy cells was examined. There was a dose-related decrease in the number of chlamydial inclusions in the presence of ...