Antichlamydial Antibodies, Human Fertility, and Pregnancy Wastage

Figure 2

The life cycle of genital serovars of C. trachomatis. The chlamydial growth cycle involves transformation between distinct forms: the elementary body (EB) and the reticulate body (RB). The highly infectious EB attaches to nonciliated columnar or cuboidal epithelial cells and induces ingestion by the host cell. EB are metabolically inactive and represent the extracellular C. trachomatis growth form. Once ingested into a phagosome, fusion of the phagosome with the host lysosome is prevented, a highly unusual occurrence that ensures EB survival. The EB reorganizes within the phagosome into a metabolically active RB. RBs are noninfectious but can replicate and do so by binary fission. Several stimuli, including antibiotic and IFNγ exposure, can drive chlamydia into a persistent state, which lasts in vitro until removal of the exogenous stressor. If persistence is avoided, or if infection is reactivated from persistence, the RB will ultimately reorganize back into EB, which will be released from the host cell to infect surrounding epithelial cells (reproduced with permission [17]).