TY - JOUR AU - Álvarez, D. AU - Caro, M. R. AU - Buendía, A. J. AU - Schnee, C. AU - Ortega, N. AU - Murcia-Belmonte, A. AU - Salinas, J. PY - 2019 DA - 2019/07/24 TI - Effect of female sex hormones on the developmental cycle of Chlamydia abortus compared to a penicillin-induced model of persistent infection JO - BMC Veterinary Research SP - 259 VL - 15 IS - 1 AB - Chlamydia abortus, an obligate intracellular pathogen with an affinity for placenta, causes reproductive failure. In non-pregnant animals, an initial latent infection is established until the next gestation, when the microorganism is reactivated, causing abortion. The precise mechanisms that trigger the awakening of C. abortus are still unknown. Sexual hormones such as estradiol and progesterone have been shown to affect the outcome of infection in other species of the family Chlamydiaceae, while estrogens increase chlamydial infection, progesterone has the opposite effect. To try to establish whether there is a relationship between these events and the latency/ reactivation of C. abortus in the reproductive tract of small ruminants, ovine endometrial (LE) and trophoblastic (AH-1) cells were treated with estradiol or progesterone prior to their infection with C. abortus. The results are compared with those obtained for treatment with penicillin prior to infection, which is a well-established model for studying persistent infection in other chlamydial species. Cells were examined by transmission electron microscopy, and an mRNA expression analysis of 16 genes related to the chlamydial developmental cycle was made. SN - 1746-6148 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-019-2013-7 DO - 10.1186/s12917-019-2013-7 ID - Álvarez2019 ER -