CHLAMYDIA-PNEUMONIAE DNA IS NOT DETECTABLE WITHIN SARCOIDOSIS TISSUE

Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disease of unknown etiology. Recent stu dies have suggested the possibility of a bacterial origin with Chlamyd ia pneumoniae being one of the many bacteria considered. The aim of th is study was to use the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in an attempt to identify C. pneumoniae within fresh/frozen sarcoidosis tissue. Tiss ue from 20 sarcoidosis patients and 17 controls was evaluated, DNA was extracted from all tissue specimens and PCR amplified with primers sp ecific for C. pneumoniae, All study tissues were negative for the pres ence of DNA sequences from C. pneumoniae, These findings could not be attributed to PCR inhibition or to lack of sensitivity of the PCR assa y. The negative finding suggests either that there is no involvement b etween C. pneumoniae and sarcoidosis or that, having incited granuloma ta formation, it is no longer present in detectable amounts.