Profile of Anti-Chlamydia Immune Responses in Complicated (Infertile) and Non-complicated (Fertile) Genital Infections
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Date
2015
Authors
Ebuehi, O.A.T.
Omosun, Y.
Igietseme, J.U.
Ukwade, C.
Ouburg, S.
Lang, J.A.
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Publisher
HSOA Journal of Clinical Immunology and Immunotherapy
Abstract
The simultaneous induction of protective and immunopathogenic responses during genital C. trachomatis infection is proposed to respectively confer partial immunity and at least partly drive the
complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease and tubal factor infertility. T cell-mediated immune response is crucial for chlamydial immunity in experimental animal models and in humans. However, the measurement of T cell-derived cytokines in human specimens such as serum or mucosal tissue fluids can be the influenced of several factors in addition to the incident infection. Therefore, it is uncertain whether T cell cytokine levels in biological fluids can predict infections that lead to complications, and can be used as reliable biomarkers of chlamydial disease complications, such as tubal factor infertility. Using a reliable murine model of chlamydia induced infertility, we tested the hypothesis that the anti-chlamydial T cell immune effectors induced during infections that produce complications are qualitatively or quantitatively distinct from non-complicated infections. The results revealed that infected infertile mice exhibited lower systemic anti-chlamydial total IgG levels than animals with comparable microbiological shedding of chlamydiae but protected from infertility by treatment with the pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK. Interestingly, infected fertile mice showed greater Th1-type cytokines, mostly TNF-µ, IFN-γ and IL-17 than infertile animals, while levels of the Th2-type cytokines, IL-5 and IL-10 were higher in infected infertile mice than fertile mice.
These profiles of systemic cytokine levels in mice are corroborated by clinical findings demonstrating that chlamydial infection with tubal pathologies elicited a predominantly Th2 immune response. Thus, antigen-specific T cell cytokine response may distinguish infections leading to immunity versus sequelae, providing a useful prognostic biomarker and as a guide for vaccine design and evaluation.
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Scholarly article
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Citation
Ebuehi, O.A.T., Igietseme, J.U, Ukwade, C, Ouburg, S , Land, J.A, Omosun, Y, et al. (2015) Profile of Anti-Chlamydia Immune Responses in Complicated (Infertile) and Non-complicated (Fertile) Genital Infections. J Clin Immunol Immunother 2:1.