A 6 week course of azithromycin treatment has no beneficial effect on atherosclerotic lesion development in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice chronically infected with Chlamydia pneumoniae.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether antimicrobial chemotherapy prevents acceleration of atherosclerotic lesion development induced by infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae.


METHODS
ApoE-deficient mice which develop hyperlipidaemia and atherosclerosis spontaneously were inoculated intranasally with C. pneumoniae. Animals were treated with azithromycin for 6 weeks after the third inoculation and the atherosclerotic lesion areas in the aortic sinus were measured by computer-assisted morphometry.


RESULTS
At 12 weeks post-infection, infected untreated animals developed significantly larger lesion areas compared with sham-inoculated controls (8.7 x 10(4)+/-2.3 x 10(4) microm(2) versus 5.6 x 10(4)+/-2.4 x 10(4) microm(2)). However, there were no differences in lesion size of infected mice treated with azithromycin in comparison with untreated infected controls (11.0 x 10(4)+/-3.0 x 10(4) microm(2) versus 8.7 x 10(4)+/-2.3 x 10(4) microm(2)).


CONCLUSIONS
Antibiotic treatment against C. pneumoniae has no beneficial effects on hyperlipidaemia-induced atherosclerosis accelerated by C. pneumoniae in a mouse model.
Blessing
E
E
Department of Pathobiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Campbell
L A
LA
Rosenfeld
M E
ME
Chesebro
B
B
Kuo
C-C
CC
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000172:deficiency*; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D017963:Azithromycin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D023521:Chlamydophila Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D016993:Chlamydophila pneumoniae; D002908:Chronic Disease; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D017963:Azithromycin