Global Journal of Digestive Diseases

Additional Evidence for Chlamydia in Tissues of Patients with Crohn's Disease

Background and aims: Previously, evidence of chlamydia has been reported in Crohn’s Disease. The aim of the current work was to seek evidence of chlamydia in resected tissues of patients.

Methods: A specific TaqMan pan-chlamydiae probe was employed in a broad-range Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to seek evidence of various members of the chlamydiae phylum in paraffin-embedded formalin-fixed small bowel tissues from 28 patients.

Results: Chlamydia was identified in 14 of 34 tissue sections from the 28 patients. There was evidence of Chlamydia suis, C. trachomatis, Neochlamydia sp, Protochlamydia sp., and Metachlamydia sp.

Conclusions: These findings are consistent with earlier studies and an infectious pig model generated by the oral administration of Chlamydia suis. It is incumbent upon future studies to seek chlamydia species by PCR as we have done. Resection or biopsy tissues taken early in the course of the disease hold the greatest opportunity to find evidence of chlamydia.

Author(s): Herbert J van Kruiningen1*, Megha Dhillon1, Sebastien Aeby2, Nicole Borel3 and Gilbert Greub2

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