Immune status of newborns in perinatal chlamydial infection.

Abstract

Thirty newborns, delivered by mothers with urogenital chlamydiosis, diagnosed on the 35th-36th weeks of gestation, and 10 newborns of healthy mothers were studied immunologically. CD3 (T-lymphocytes), CD19 (B-lymphocytes), CD4 (T-helpers-inductors), CD8 (T-suppressor-cytotoxic), T-lymphocyte response to PHA, levels of Ig G, A, M in umbilical blood were detected. Chlamydia trachomatis antibody's titers in umbilical blood were determined by indirect immunofluorescent method (with antigen C. trachomatis, serovar L2). Antibody titers found in umbilical blood were in 50% of cases higher than antibody level in mother's blood serum, and they later varied from 1:64 to 1:256. It was established that newborns delivered by mothers with urogenital chlamydiosis had imbalance of T-lymphocyte subsets, decrease in the numbers of T- and B- lymphocytes, and increased level of Ig M, while the level of Ig G did not change significantly. The exposed disproportion in immune status neonatal, born from mothers with urogenital chlamydiosis, in combination with high C. trachomatis antibody titers in umbilical blood may be prognostic of the development of neonatal chlamydial infections.