MICE IMMUNIZED WITH A CHLAMYDIAL EXTRACT HAVE NO INCREASE IN EARLY PROTECTIVE IMMUNITY DESPITE INCREASED INFLAMMATION FOLLOWING GENITAL-INFECTION BY THE MOUSE PNEUMONITIS AGENT OF CHLAMYDIA-TRACHOMATIS

We have determined that immunization with a detergent extract of the m ouse pneumonitis agent of Chlamydia trachomatis fails to induce a prot ective inflammatory immune response following genital infection by C. trachomatis. We demonstrated that mice immunized with the detergent ex tract have increased cutaneous delayed-type hypersensitivity and incre ased splenic T-cell proliferation in response to the chlamydial extrac t. After genital infection by C. trachomatis, extract-sensitized mice had significantly increased genital inflammation (P = 0.044) compared with controls. The inflammation was characterized by significantly inc reased eosinophils in the genitalia (P < 0.0005) and increased genital edema (P < 0.0005). However, the increased genital inflammation of ex tract-sensitized mice provided no increase in protection against infec tion (P = 0.92).