Iatrogenic Chlamydia infection-associated damage in the basilar arterial wall of the rat

A random finding of intracranial vascular Chlamydia sp. infection in Wistar rats and its associated damage of the component tissues of the basilar arterial wall are described as seen with transmission electron microscopy. The pathological changes observed showed no apparent specificity except for "striding" of the endothelial cells on the elastic lamina, the phenomenon observed in all five rats with basilar arterial Chlamydia infection, and in only two out of 13 rats with no proof of the infection. No atherosclerotic changes were found in the infected artery in rats sacrificed 8 or 26 weeks after the presumed infection.