The genus Chlamydia encompasses a number of species of obligate intracellular bacteria, including important human pathogens like the most common bacterial agent of sexually transmitted disease. This volume reviews current knowledge of chlamydial biology, covering the unusual structure of the bacteria – which alternate between metabolically almost inactive and fast-dividing forms. It also discusses the ways in which Chlamydia manipulates the host cytoskeleton and subverts the host cell’s defence, and illustrates how genomics have begun to uncover the diversity and complexity of chlamydial strains that look very similar but may cause distinct forms of disease. Further, it describes how techniques are now finally being established that can genetically modify Chlamydia, and discusses why such modification is still very difficult and what progress we can expect. Lastly, it presents our current understanding of chlamydial disease: what do we know about chronic infections, what are the mechanisms of inflammatory damage, and what are the prospects of a vaccine? Written be specialists in these various areas, the book is a valuable work of reference for students and scientists with an interest in the molecular, cellular and immunobiology of these fascinating bacteria.

New insights into one of the world's most common infectious diseases Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacteria that cause one of the most common sexually transmitted infectious diseases in the world. The infection disproportionately impacts women and the highest prevalence of infection is found in adolescents. Most chlamydial infections are asymptomatic. Untreated infections are sources of further spread of infection and can lead to serious consequences including pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and chronic pelvic pain. Chlamydial infections also increase a person's susceptibility to HIV and other STDs. Featuring contributions by internationally recognized experts in epidemiology, infectious disease research and chlamydial biology, this book provides up-to-date reviews from a clinical and public health perspective on chlamydia epidemiology and control programs, genomics and pathogenicity, diagnosis, treatment, host immune responses, and the latest on the search for an effective vaccine. Also included are chapters on the impact of chlamydial infection on specific populations such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and an update on the outbreak in Europe of the invasive chlamydial infection, lymphogranuloma venereum or LGV. This comprehensive publication is intended for clinicians, public health workers and scientists with interest in sexually transmitted diseases, medical microbiology, infectious diseases and clinical research.

Containing nineteen chapters this comprehensive book is essential reading for every Chlamydia researcher.

The chlamydiae are Gram-negative, obligate intracellular bacteria with a complex developmental cycle comprising a metabolically less-active, infectious stage, the elementary body (EB), and a metabolically more active stage, the reticulate body (RB). They are responsible for many acute and chronic diseases in humans and animals. In order to play a causative role in chronic diseases, chlamydiae would need to persist and to re-activate within infected cells/tissues for extended periods of time. Persistence in vitro is defined as viable but non-cultivable chlamydiae involving morphologically enlarged, aberrant, and nondividing RBs, termed aberrant bodies (AB). In vitro, alterations of the normal developmental cycle of chlamydiae can be induced by the addition of Interferon-? (IFN-?), tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) and penicillin G exposure as well as amino acid or iron deprivation, monocyte infection and co-infection with viruses. In vivo, key questions include whether or not ABs occur in infected patients and animals and whether such ABs can contribute to prolonged, chronic inflammation, fibrosis, and scarring through continuing stimulation of the host immune system known from diseases such as trachoma, pelvic inflammatory disease, reactive arthritis and atherosclerosis. To date, the direct causal role in the pathogenesis of chlamydial infection and persistence in vivo has been questioned since there was no tractable animal model of chlamydial persistence so far. A very recent study was able to establish an experimental animal model of in vivo persistence, when C. muridarum vaginally-infected mice were gavaged with amoxicillin. Amoxicillin treatment induced C. muridarum to enter the persistent state in vivo. Recent in vivo data from patients indicate that viable but non-infectious developmental stages are present in the genital tract of chronically-infected women and that the gastrointestinal tract might be a reservoir for persistent chlamydial infections at other sites.

A current review of basic research on Chlamydiales biology and pathogenesis in one comprehensive volume. • Details the scientific knowledge about how these obligate intracellular bacteria invade, survive and replicate inside eukaryotic cells. • Describes the spectrum of disease caused by an infection including protective and pathologic immune responses. • Describes the latest developments, including genomics and biomathematical modeling, and progress towards genetic tools and a vaccine. • Serves as a significant research book for scientists, physicians, medical students, public health professionals, epidemiologists, biocomputational scientists and government policy makers.

First Published in 1988, this book offers a full, comprehensive guide into microbiology of Chlamydia and its relationship with our bodies. Carefully compiled and filled with a vast repertoire of notes, pictures, and references this book serves as a useful reference for Students of Medicine, and other practitioners in their respective fields.