Three-hundred sixty sera from unselected patients attending two London venereal disease clinics were examined by a microimmunofluorescence test. Eleven egg-grown serotypes of Chlamydia trachomatis and the so-called "fast" strain SA2(f) were used as antigens. Of the 360 sera tested, 119 (33%) reacted to a titer of 1:16 or above with at least one antigen. Of these positive sera, over 50% cross-re...

Chlamydia trachomatis, an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen of mucosal surfaces, is a major cause of preventable blindness and sexually transmitted diseases for which vaccines are badly needed. Despite considerable effort, antichlamydial vaccines have proven to be elusive using conventional immunization strategies. We report the use of murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (DC) pul...

We previously found that rottlerin, a plant-derived small molecule compound, profoundly inhibited Chlamydia trachomatis growth and blocked sphingolipid trafficking from host cell Golgi into chlamydial inclusions. Since the p38-regulated/activated protein kinase (PRAK) is a known target of rottlerin and is activated in Chlamydia trachomatis-infected cells, we investigated the potential role of t...

The accuracy of the Surecell Chlamydia Test Kit (Kodak Clinical Products, Rochester, N.Y.) in detecting neonatal conjunctival infection caused by Chlamydia trachomatis was determined by comparison of this enzyme immunoassay with the isolation of C. trachomatis in tissue culture. Kodak Surecell is a rapid monoclonal antibody-based membrane capture enzyme immunoassay which can be processed in the...

The koala biovar of Chlamydia pneumoniae was identified in lung tissue from a sick, free-ranging giant barred frog (Mixophyes iteratus) by using electron microscopy, C. pneumoniae-specific fluorescent-antibody staining, cell culture, and sequencing of the ompA, ompB and 16S rRNA genes. This is the first report of a chlamydial strain infecting both a homeotherm and a poikilotherm and only the fo...

UNLABELLED Chlamydiae are well known for their species specificity and tissue tropism, and yet the individual species and strains show remarkable genomic synteny and share an intracellular developmental cycle unique in the microbial world. Only a relatively few chlamydial genes have been linked to specific disease or tissue tropism. Here we show that chlamydial species associated with human inf...

Persistence, more recently termed the chlamydial stress response, is a viable but non-infectious state constituting a divergence from the characteristic chlamydial biphasic developmental cycle. Damage/danger associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are normal intracellular components or metabolites that, when released from cells, signal cellular damage/lysis. Purine metabolite DAMPs, including ext...

OBJECTIVE To measure the prevalence of chlamydial genital infection in Ethiopian women attending gynaecological, obstetric and family planning clinics; to identify the epidemiological, social and economic factors affecting the prevalence of infection in a country where routine laboratory culture and serological tests for chlamydial species are unavailable; to determine the risk factors for geni...

OBJECTIVES To analyse trends in rates of genital chlamydial infection and ectopic pregnancy between 1985 and 1995 in a county in Sweden. SETTING Uppsala county where screening for chlamydial infection, treatment, and contact tracing has been widespread and where ectopic pregnancies are recorded. METHODS Rates of chlamydial infections and ectopic pregnancy between 1985 and 1995 were calculat...