Synovial Chlamydia trachomatis in patients with reactive arthritis/Reiter's syndrome are viable but show aberrant gene expression.

Abstract

Synovial chlamydia are viable/metabolically active, since primary rRNA transcripts and mRNA from chlamydial genes specifying components of the bacterial protein synthetic system were present in most patient samples assayed. Expression of omp1, encoding the major outer membrane protein, is strongly attenuated in persistently infecting synovial chlamydia, while that of hsp60, specifying a highly immunogenic heat shock protein of the organism, is not downregulated.