title: Failure to detect Chlamydia pneumoniae in brain sections of Alzheimer's disease patients.
abstract: A recent North American study detected Chlamydia pneumoniae in 17 of 19 brains of Alzheimer's patients and supposed a C. pneumoniae infection to be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we analyzed paraffin-embedded tissue samples of 20 AD patients by nested PCR and immunocytochemistry with a panel of antichlamydial antibodies and could detect neither C. pneumoniae-specific DNA nor chlamydial antigens. From our data, the presence of C. pneumoniae in the brains of Alzheimer's patients is not a common phenomenon; an association remains questionable.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Medical University of Lübeck, D-23538 Lübeck, Germany. gieffers@hygiene.mu-luebeck.de
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gieffers
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Reusche
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Solbach
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maass
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000382:microbiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000382:microbiology*; D016993:Chlamydophila pneumoniae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D005557:Formaldehyde; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016707:Tissue Fixation
chemical_list: D005557:Formaldehyde