Antichlamydial and antisperm antibodies in patients with chlamydial infections

Problem: Establishing the correlation between antichlamydial antibodies (AchAbs) and antisperin antibodies (ASA) in patients with chlamydial infections. Method of study: ASA were studied in sera from patients (142 with genital, 57 with ocular chlamydial infections) and control group (n = 100) by gelatin and tray agglutination test (TAT), sperm immobilization test (SIT) and ELISA. AchAbs were revealed by ELISA. Results: A significantly higher (P <0.05) ASA incidence was noted in patients with genital infections as compared with controls and patients with opthalmologic infection (P <0.0001), but not between patients with opthalmologic infection and controls (P > 0.05). A significant correlation was established between AchAbs and ASA for TAT (r = 0.8214, P = 0.0341), SIT (r = 0.797, P = 0.032) and ELISA (r = 0.8519, P = 0.0313) in patients with genital infections only. Conclusions: The genital Chlamydia infection may play a role in the induction of ASA. This is probably a result of the inflammatory process, but not of cross-reactivity between sperm and Chlamydia trachomatis antigens. © Blackwell Munksgaard, 2004.