FAILURE TO DETECT CHLAMYDIA-TRACHOMATIS IN CELL-CULTURE BY USING A MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY DIRECTED AGAINST THE MAJOR OUTER-MEMBRANE PROTEIN

Two commercially available monoclonal antibodies for cell culture conf irmation of Chlamydia trachomatis were compared in two prospective stu dies and one large retrospective study. In total, more than 33,000 gen ital specimens were cultured in parallel and stained with both antibod ies, one of which was directed against the major outer membrane protei n (MOMP) and one uf which was directed against the lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We found the anti-LPS-based assay to be more sensitive and as s pecific as the anti-MOMP-based assay for C. trachomatis cell culture c onfirmation of genital specimens.