Demonstration of viable Chlamydia pneumoniae in atherosclerotic plaques ofcarotid arteries by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction

The presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae in atheromas has been demonstrated in several studies. Culture of the organism from arterial tissue has been diff icult. We report the use of a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reacti on to detect viable Chlamydia pneumoniae in carotid atheromas. We analyzed 30 patients (14 females, mean age 69.6 +/- 8.8 years) who underwent surgery for the removal of atherosclerotic plaques from carotid arteries. During s urgery, samples of lingual vein and superior thyroideal artery were also ta ken. We applied two molecular biology techniques to the carotid plaques on lingual vein or thyroideal artery samples: 1) polymerase chain reaction (PC R) and 2) reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) for the detection of bacterial mRNA, employing PCR primers designed to detect a fragment of the 16S rRNA gene. Blood samples were obtained from the patients for determination of Ch lamydia pneumoniae IgG, IgA, and IgM antibody titers by a microimmunofluore scence technique. The results of the present study confirmed the presence o f viable Chlamydia pneumoniae in atheromas and support the hypothesis that the organism may be an active factor in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis .