A modification of the microimmunofluorescence test to provide a practicable routine serodiagnostic test for detecting and characterising chlamydial infection is described which uses four antigen pools, one of which corresponds with each of the four main clinical and epidemiological types of chlamydial infection. The three subgroup A Chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis) pools are: pool 1, hyperende...

Both Chlamydophila psittaci and Escherichia coli infections are highly prevalent in Belgian turkeys and therefore they both might contribute to the respiratory disease complex observed in turkeys. C. psittaci can infect turkeys within the first week of age, even in the presence of maternal antibodies. However, the first C. psittaci outbreaks occur mostly at the age of 3 to 6 weeks, the period w...

Immunoglobulin A is an important mucosal antibody that can neutralize mucosal pathogens by either preventing attachment to epithelia (immune exclusion) or alternatively inhibit intra-epithelial replication following transcytosis by the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR). Chlamydia trachomatis is a major human pathogen that initially targets the endocervical or urethral epithelium in women...

The structure of the antigen-binding fragment from the monoclonal antibody S64-4 in complex with a pentasaccharide bisphosphate fragment from chlamydial lipopolysaccharide has been determined by x-ray diffraction to 2.6 Å resolution. Like the well-characterized antibody S25-2, S64-4 displays a pocket formed by the residues of germline sequence corresponding to the heavy and light chain V gene s...

The value of several serological tests was assessed by studying sera from 30 women with clinical findings of perihepatitis and a high chlamydial antibody titre in the indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT). The other tests included the complement fixation test and enzyme immunoassays in which the antigen comprised either partially purified particles (EIA kit) or purified major outer m...

IL-9/Th9 responses are recently found to be important for innate and adaptive immunity particularly in parasitic infections. To date, the study on the role of IL-9 in bacterial infections is limited and the reported data are contradictory. One reported function of IL-9/Th9 is to modulate Th1/Th17 responses. Since our and others' previous work has shown a critical role of Th1 and Th17 cells in h...

Ninety male patients with acute nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) who presented for follow-up 10-92 days after initiation of treatment were evaluated. A polymerase chain reaction assay and direct fluorescence antibody test were used to detect Chlamydia trachomatis at presentation and during follow-up. Chlamydial heat-shock protein 60 kD (hsp60) serology with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay an...

Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted pathogen, but more than 70% of patients fail to seek treatment due to the asymptomatic nature of these infections. Women suffer from numerous complications from chronic chlamydial infections, which include pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility. We previously demonstrated in culture that host cell nectin-1 knockdown si...

Specimens for chlamydial isolation culture and direct fluorescent antibody cytology (DFA) were collected from 1671 women and children from a trachoma-endemic area in Central Tanzania. Trachoma was graded using the new World Health Organization grading scheme, and 54% of the children and 9% of the women had inflammatory trachoma (TF or TI). DFA, using the presence of five elementary bodies as th...

OBJECTIVE To determine how often chlamydial conjunctivitis is accompanied by a genital chlamydial infection and if there is a correlation between the dominant hand and the eye first infected. METHODS We retrospectively studied the records of 65 patients with chlamydial conjunctivitis who were referred to the Outpatient Department of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) of the University Hospit...