Chlamydia trachomatis reactive T lymphocytes from upper genital tract tissue specimens

Chlamydia trachomatis infection is associated with pelvic inflammatory dise ase (PID) and tubal factor infertility (TFI). We investigated the role of C . trachomatis as a target antigen of endometrial and salpingeal tissue lymp hocytes derived from PID and TFI patients. Antigen specificity of the tissu e originated T lymphocyte lines (TLL) was tested against C, trachomatis ele mentary bodies and chlamydial heat shock protein 60 (CHSP60). C. trachomati s antigen stimulated proliferation in two out of eight endometrial TLL deri ved from PID patients and three out of four TLL derived from TFI patients. All (n = 4) TLL derived from the salpingeal specimens responded to CHSP60 c ompared with only one out of 12 TLL derived from the endometrial specimens. In-vivo expression of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) mRNA revealed that it w as present in nine of 13 specimens obtained from PID patients. The dominant activity of type-1 T lymphocytes was confirmed by the in-vitro production of IFN-gamma (median 1007 pg/ml) from all (n = 5) C, trachomatis specific T LL while IL-5 secretion was lower (median 779 pg/ml). In conclusion, C, tra chomatis reactive TLL were established from in-vivo activated lymphocytes f rom the upper genital tract tissue of PID and TFI patients. The reactivity of the salpingeal TLL to CHSP60 provided further evidence that immunoreacti vity to CHSP60 is a predominant response in patients with tubal damage.