Serologic responses of infertile women to the 60-kd chlamydial heat shock protein (hsp60).

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether women with Chlamydia trachomatis-associated tubal infertility are more likely than other infertile women to have antibodies to a particular region of the 60-kd chlamydial heat shock protein, hsp60.

DESIGN

Serologic responses to the chlamydial hsp60 were examined in 43 infertile women seropositive for Chlamydia trachomatis, including 21 women with tubal infertility, 13 women with endometriosis, and 9 women with other causes of infertility. Antibody responses were localized to regions of hsp60 using five nonoverlapping recombinant polypeptides.

RESULTS

Sixteen women with tubal infertility had anti-hsp60 antibodies compared with seven women with endometriosis and two women with other causes of infertility. Antibodies of 11 women with tubal infertility reacted predominantly with a region of hsp60 containing amino acids (201 to 300) compared with 1 women without tubal infertility. In contrast, antibodies that localized to the carboxyl terminus, amino acids (401 to 544), were seen equally in all groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Among seropositive infertile women, antibodies that localized to amino acids (201 to 300) were immunodominant in those with tubal infertility but not in those with infertility due to other causes.