Culturing Chlamydophila pneumoniae

Abstract

Chlamydophila pneumoniae (formerly Chlamydia pneumoniae) is an intracellular pathogen responsible for respiratory tract infection. A recent British survey of the microbial aetiology of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) indicated that C. pneumonia is responsible for 13% of CAP and is the second highest bacterial cause of CAP 1. It has been associated with bronchitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis, myocarditis, endocarditis and coronary artery disease 2. In order to treat C. pneumoniae infections it is first essential to know the efficacy of the available antimicrobial agents against this pathogen. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) tests are used to investigate the in vitro capabilities of antimicrobial agents on bacteria. Therefore, MIC testing of C. pneumoniae needs to be carried out before an antimicrobial agent is used to treat the infection. Culturing of C. pneumoniae must occur before MIC tests can be performed. C. pneumoniae is known to be very difficult to culture and is far more difficult than other chlamydial species 2. Many methods of culturing C. pneumoniae have been proposed with differing cell lines, centrifugation conditions and incubation times. There is no standard method for culturing C. pneumoniae nor for testing the MIC of antimicrobial agents against it. There is no agreement on optimal culture conditions between different Journal of Chemotherapy Vol. 14 n. 3 (312-313) 2002