Chlamydia trachomatis

Walid El-Nahal, M.D., Annie Antar, M.D.
Chlamydia trachomatis is a topic covered in the Johns Hopkins HIV Guide.

To view the entire topic, please or .

Official website of the Johns Hopkins Antibiotic (ABX), HIV, Diabetes, and Psychiatry Guides, powered by Unbound Medicine. Johns Hopkins Guide App for iOS, iPhone, iPad, and Android included. Explore these free sample topics:

-- The first section of this topic is shown below --

MICROBIOLOGY

  • The many serovars of C. trachomatis can generally be divided into:
    • Serovars D-K: cause genitourinary tract disease, rectal disease (including proctitis), and conjunctivitis.
    • Serovars L1-L3: cause lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) and proctocolitis.
    • Serovars A-C: causing endemic trachoma (chronic keratoconjunctivitis) in resource-limited tropical settings, leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide.
  • Obligate intracellular bacteria, infecting primarily ocular and genitourinary epithelium; one of the smallest known bacterial genomes.
  • All Chlamydia species have 2 distinct forms in their infectious cycle:
    • Elementary body (EB - infectious, extracellular sporelike form)
    • Reticulate body (RB - intracellular, metabolically active, replicating form).
    • The EB penetrates a cell, transforms into an RB to replicate, then eventually the cell ruptures releasing EBs that can infect new cells.
  • Requires cell culture for propagation.
  • Immunity is short-lived, which explains the frequency of re-infection.

-- To view the remaining sections of this topic, please or --

MICROBIOLOGY

  • The many serovars of C. trachomatis can generally be divided into:
    • Serovars D-K: cause genitourinary tract disease, rectal disease (including proctitis), and conjunctivitis.
    • Serovars L1-L3: cause lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) and proctocolitis.
    • Serovars A-C: causing endemic trachoma (chronic keratoconjunctivitis) in resource-limited tropical settings, leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide.
  • Obligate intracellular bacteria, infecting primarily ocular and genitourinary epithelium; one of the smallest known bacterial genomes.
  • All Chlamydia species have 2 distinct forms in their infectious cycle:
    • Elementary body (EB - infectious, extracellular sporelike form)
    • Reticulate body (RB - intracellular, metabolically active, replicating form).
    • The EB penetrates a cell, transforms into an RB to replicate, then eventually the cell ruptures releasing EBs that can infect new cells.
  • Requires cell culture for propagation.
  • Immunity is short-lived, which explains the frequency of re-infection.

There's more to see -- the rest of this topic is available only to subscribers.

Last updated: October 19, 2022