Is Chlamydia pneumoniae present in brain lesions of patients with multiple sclerosis?

J Clin Microbiol. 2000 Nov;38(11):4274-6. doi: 10.1128/JCM.38.11.4274-4276.2000.

Abstract

We investigated the presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae in 81 normal and pathological specimens obtained from postmortem brain tissues of patients with multiple sclerosis and with other neurological or nonneurological diseases. The assays used included PCR amplification of all DNA samples in the initial study. Culture and a second PCR amplification of the organism in a subset of 19 brain specimens were also performed in two separate laboratories. All results were negative. Thus, this study on a large number of brain tissues suggests that C. pneumoniae is not involved in inflammatory demyelination.

MeSH terms

  • Brain / microbiology*
  • Brain / pathology
  • Chlamydia Infections / microbiology*
  • Chlamydophila pneumoniae / genetics
  • Chlamydophila pneumoniae / isolation & purification*
  • Culture Media
  • DNA, Bacterial / analysis
  • Humans
  • Multiple Sclerosis / microbiology*
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

  • Culture Media
  • DNA, Bacterial