[Increased prevalence of serum IgA Chlamydia antibodies in obesity]

Obesity is metabolically related to diabetes type II. We have previously shown that seroactive (IgG- and IgA-Chlamydia antibody positive) chlamydial infection of asymptomatic patients is more frequent in type II diabetic patients than in nondiabetics, independent from metabolic control. Thus we investigated 119 nondiabetic patients (66 +/- 9 years, HbA1c < 6%) of our department for seroactive chlamydia infection using an immunoperoxidase reaction and compared the results to the anthropometric data. The prevalence of seroactive chlamydial infection was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the considerably overweight patients with a BMI > 30 kg/m2, both when compared to lean patients (BMI < 24 kg/m2) and when compared to all those with BMI < 30 kg/m2. For slight to moderate obesity the prevalences were slightly (but not significantly) increased. Due to the fact that similar data were obtained for type II diabetic patients, an unknown relation to insulin resistance might be the underlying cause and should be further investigated.