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Urethral cytokine and immune responses in Chlamydia trachomatis-infected males
M S Pate1, S R Hedges, D A Sibley
1Department of Microbiology, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Jefferson County Department of Health, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA. mspate@uab.edu
Abstract:
Penile urethral swabs collected from PCR-confirmed Chlamydia trachomatis-infected, C. trachomatis-uninfected, and non-C. trachomatis-infected, nongonococcal urethritis-infected males were analyzed for cytokine, total immunoglobulin (Ig), and specific antibody levels by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Differential cellular components of the swab transport medium were also enumerated for the same groups. Although low, the levels of C. trachomatis-specific IgA and IgG antibodies and interleukin 8 cytokine were significantly higher in C. trachomatis-infected individuals. There were no significant differences in the levels of seven additional cytokines evaluated.