Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Section of Microbiology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
Molecular Microbiology Group, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK.
Sci Rep. 2019 Apr 10;9(1):5847. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42396-3.
Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) is the leading cause of bacterial sexually transmitted infections worldwide and has been associated with male infertility. Recently, it was hypothesized that Ct may infect the epithelium of the seminiferous tubule, formed by Sertoli cells, thus leading to impaired spermatogenesis. To date, there is a lack of data on Ct infection of the seminiferous epithelium; therefore, we aimed to characterize, for the first time, an in vitro infection model of primary human Sertoli cells. We compared Ct inclusion size, morphology and growth kinetics with those in McCoy cells and we studied F-actin fibres, Vimentin-based intermediate filaments and α-tubulin microtubules in Sertoli and McCoy cells. Our main finding highlighted the ability of Ct to infect Sertoli cells, although with a unique growth profile and the inability to exit host cells. Furthermore, we observed alterations in the cytoskeletal fibres of infected Sertoli cells. Our results suggest that Ct struggles to generate a productive infection in Sertoli cells, limiting its dissemination in the host. Nevertheless, the adverse effect on the cytoskeleton supports the notion that Ct may compromise the blood-testis barrier, impairing spermatogenesis.
沙眼衣原体（Ct）是全球导致细菌性性传播感染的主要原因，与男性不育有关。最近，有人假设 Ct 可能感染由支持细胞形成的生精小管的上皮细胞，从而导致精子发生受损。迄今为止，关于 Ct 感染生精上皮的资料有限；因此，我们旨在首次对原代人支持细胞的体外感染模型进行特征描述。我们比较了 Ct 包涵体的大小、形态和生长动力学与 McCoy 细胞中的那些，我们还研究了 Sertoli 和 McCoy 细胞中的 F-肌动蛋白纤维、基于波形蛋白的中间丝和α-微管蛋白。我们的主要发现强调了 Ct 感染支持细胞的能力，尽管 Ct 具有独特的生长模式和无法离开宿主细胞的能力。此外，我们观察到感染的支持细胞中的细胞骨架纤维发生改变。我们的结果表明，Ct 难以在支持细胞中产生有效的感染，从而限制了其在宿主中的传播。然而，对细胞骨架的不利影响支持了这样一种观点，即 Ct 可能损害血睾屏障，损害精子发生。
