HOYMANS VY, BOSMANS JM, URSI D, MARTINET W, ALTWEGG M, VAN MARCK E, VRINTS CJ, IEVEN M; Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (43rd: 2003: Chicago, Ill.).
Abstr Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2003 Sep 14-17; 43: abstract no. B-1669.
Antwerp University, Edegem, Belgium.
BACKGROUND: Immunohistological detection of Chlamydia pneumoniae (CP) antigens in polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-negative atheroma has given rise to a controversial link between CP and atherosclerosis. We evaluated whether positive immunohistology results from the presence of chlamydial antigens, or from cross-reactivity with non-chlamydial plaque constituents. METHODS: Two hundred and five surgically removed human arterial segments were examined for CP DNA by conventional PCR using three different primer pairs and by real-time PCR in two different laboratories. Fragments of one hundred lesions were studied by immunohistochemistry using 1 CP-specific and 2 Chlamydia genus-specific monoclonal antibodies. Eight mammary vessels and 6 fetal aorta's were also included. Serial sections of 8 atheroma's were examined by Western blotting (WB), histological staining, and viewed under a fluorescence microscope with UV light. RESULTS: Immunoreactivity for CP was frequent: in 79% of cases with antibody RR402 directed at a CP membrane protein, in 17% with chlamydial heat shock protein 60 antibody and in 11% with chlamydial lipopolysaccharide antibody. Mammary arteries also scored positive. The degree of antigenic positivity was not related to the extent of atherosclerosis (Stary classification, Pearson Chi-Square test). PCR analysis did not detect CP specific DNA in any of the lesions. Chlamydial proteins were not detected by WB in adjacent tissue sections. Histological staining for CP colocalised with UV light-induced ceroid autofluorescence. Fetal aortic tissue was negative for chlamydial immunoblotting and antigenic staining. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of CP DNA in human atherosclerosis, together with negative WB analysis for CP proteins, and significant colocalization of positive CP immunohistochemistry with autofluorescent ceroid, suggests cross-reactivity with non-chlamydial plaque constituents.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Antibodies, Bacterial
- Antibodies, Monoclonal
- Antigen-Antibody Reactions
- Aorta
- Arteriosclerosis
- Atherosclerosis
- Blotting, Western
- Ceroid
- Chaperonin 60
- Chlamydia
- Chlamydia Infections
- Chlamydophila pneumoniae
- DNA Primers
- Humans
- Immunoblotting
- Immunohistochemistry
- Lipopolysaccharides
- Polymerase Chain Reaction
- immunology
Other ID:
UI: 102264849
From Meeting Abstracts