Detection of Chlamydia Pneumoniae in Atherosclerotic Coronary Arteries

Chlamydia pneumoniae has recently been associated with the development of coronary heart diseases by sero-epidemiological studies and by direct detection of the organism in atherosclerotic tissues. The aim of our study was to employ a semi-nested PCR approach to investigate the presence of C. pneumo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of immunopathology and pharmacology 2004-09, Vol.17 (3), p.301-306
Main Authors: Sessa, R., Di Pietro, M., Schiavoni, G., Nicoletti, M., Soda, G., Nardoni, S., Bosco, D., Santino, I., Cipriani, P., Del Piano, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Arteriosclerosis - microbiology
Arteriosclerosis - pathology
Cause of Death
Chlamydophila pneumoniae - chemistry
Coronary Vessels - microbiology
Coronary Vessels - pathology
DNA, Bacterial - chemistry
DNA, Bacterial - isolation & purification
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Molecular Weight
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
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Summary:Chlamydia pneumoniae has recently been associated with the development of coronary heart diseases by sero-epidemiological studies and by direct detection of the organism in atherosclerotic tissues. The aim of our study was to employ a semi-nested PCR approach to investigate the presence of C. pneumoniae in both normal and atherosclerotic coronary arteries of humans obtained at autopsy. Moreover, we have evaluated the role of infection with C. pneumoniae in relation to the extent of coronary atherosclerosis. One hundred and eighty coronary artery specimens were collected at autopsy from 60 consecutive subjects (three arterial segments from each subject). Atherosclerosis in each arterial segment was graded histologically by the Stary classification. Thirty normal coronary arteries were also taken at autopsy as control. PCR results evidenced the presence of C. pneumoniae DNA in atherosclerotic coronary arteries in 19 (31.7%) of 60 subjects examined, while none of the 30 subjects with non-atherosclerotic tissues was positive (p=0.001). Moreover, of the 180 atherosclerotic specimens examined, C. pneumoniae DNA was detected in 3.4% (2/59) of mild atherosclerotic lesions, and in 14.0% (17/121) of advanced atherosclerotic lesions (p=0.05). Our results demonstrate that the presence of C. pneumoniae DNA may be associated with the severity of coronary atherosclerosis.
ISSN:0394-6320
2058-7384
DOI:10.1177/039463200401700310