Wills J M, Gruffydd-Jones T J, Richmond S J, Gaskell R M, Bourne F J
Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bristol, Langford, England.
Infect Immun. 1987 Nov;55(11):2653-7. doi: 10.1128/iai.55.11.2653-2657.1987.
Experimental ocular infection of specific-pathogen-free cats with the feline pneumonitis strain of Chlamydia psittaci produced an acute, severe conjunctivitis characterized by blepharospasm, conjunctival hyperemia, chemosis, and ocular discharge. Organisms were recovered from the conjunctiva for several weeks, and persistent genital and gastrointestinal infection also resulted from the ocular infection in some cats. Subcutaneous vaccination with live feline pneumonitis C. psittaci 4 weeks before ocular challenge significantly reduced the severity of the conjunctivitis. However, there was no effect on shedding of organisms from the eye or on the transmission of infection to the gastrointestinal and genital tracts. It is suggested that the acute stage of this ocular disease is caused largely by release of pathogenic antigen(s) from chlamydia-infected conjunctival cells, rather than by a direct cytopathic effect of chlamydial replication. Thus, vaccination with whole live organisms reduced the acute disease in experimentally infected cats but did not prevent shedding of the organism. The implications of these findings are discussed.
用鹦鹉热衣原体猫肺炎菌株对无特定病原体的猫进行实验性眼部感染，引发了一种急性、严重的结膜炎，其特征为眼睑痉挛、结膜充血、水肿和眼部分泌物。在数周内可从结膜中分离出病原体，并且在一些猫中，眼部感染还导致了持续性的生殖道和胃肠道感染。在眼部攻毒前4周用活的猫肺炎衣原体进行皮下接种，可显著减轻结膜炎的严重程度。然而，这对眼部病原体的排出或感染向胃肠道和生殖道的传播没有影响。提示该眼部疾病的急性期主要是由衣原体感染的结膜细胞释放致病抗原所致，而非衣原体复制的直接细胞病变效应。因此，用全活菌进行接种可减轻实验感染猫的急性疾病，但不能防止病原体的排出。文中讨论了这些发现的意义。
