Chlamydia

Pathology: - obligate intracellular parasites - they have DNA, RNA, ribosomes & a cell wall similar to gram negative bacteria - two forms are common to all species of Chlamydia: - extracellular elementary body - intracellular reticulate body - elementary body is the infective form transmitted from one person to another - lementary bodies attach to appropriate target cells, generally columnar or transitional epithelial cells, & gain access to the intracellular compartment within phagosomes - within 8 hours, the elementary bodies reorganize into reticulate bodies, the obligate intracellular & reproductive form - reticulate forms undergo binary fission producing numerous replicates contained within a membrane-bound "inclusion body" - after 24 hours, the reticulate bodies condense to form elementary bodies within the inclusion - the inclusion ruptures, presumably secondary to relaxation of inhibitory effects on lysosomal fusion, disrupting the cell & releasing elementary bodies for infectious spread Laboratory: - Chlamydia serology - Chlamydia antigen in specimen - Chlamydia DNA, Chlamydia rRNA - Chlamydia identified by culture

Properties

KINGDOM: monera DIVISION: SCHIZOMYCETES

References

Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 14th ed. Fauci et al (eds), McGraw-Hill Inc. NY, 1998, pg 1055-64