Frequency of antigen-specific B cells during experimental ocular Chlamydia trachomatis infection.
Chlamydia-specific antibody-secreting cells have been identified in conjunctiva and draining cervical lymph nodes by an ELISPOT assay in a cynomolgus monkey model of trachoma. These local sites contained numbers of chlamydia-specific B cells that were higher than those in distant inguinal lymph nodes and peripheral blood. The numbers of chlamydia-specific immunoglobulin G-secreting B cells observed were 5 to 57 per 10(6) cells in conjunctiva and 24 to 996 per 10(6) cells in cervical lymph nodes during conjunctival infection or after challenge of immune monkeys with the chlamydial 57-kDa heat shock protein (hsp60). These studies demonstrate a large chlamydia-specific B-cell component in the conjunctiva during ocular chlamydial infection. These results are similar to our findings for chlamydia-specific T-cell responses.
Pal
S
S
Immunology Laboratories, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21287.
Taylor
H R
HR
Huneke
R B
RB
Prendergast
R A
RA
Whittum-Hudson
J A
JA
D000818:Animals; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002692:Chlamydia trachomatis / Q000276:immunology*; D002772:Cholera Toxin / Q000276:immunology; D003228:Conjunctiva / Q000276:immunology; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000276:immunology; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D014141:Trachoma / Q000276:immunology
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D002772:Cholera Toxin