Chlamydia trachomatis-specific heat shock proteins 60 antibodies can serve as prognostic marker in secondary infertile women

Background: The magnitude of reproductive morbidity associated with sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis infection is enormous. A predictive serological test for upper genital tract infection would be a desirable diagnostic tool as C. trachomatis infection may lead to various immunopathological sequelae such as infertility, or ectopic pregnancy. Materials and Methods: Female patients (n = 198) attending gynecology outpatient department of Safdarjung hospital were enrolled for the study and clinically characterized into four groups on the basis of their symptoms; discharge, chronic cervicitis, primary and secondary infertility. Serological detection of C. trachomatis was done by ELISA using specific peptide sequences of major outer membrane protein (MOMP), Chlamydia heat shock protein (cHSP60 and 10). Results: Significant high seropositivity to chlamydial anticHSP60 antibodies were detected in patients with secondary infertility. A significant percent of chlamydial reinfection was observed in patients having secondary infertility (82.6%; p < 0.01) and chronic cervicitis (64.28%; p < 0.05). Considering IgG MOMP ELISA as a test standard, anti-cHSP60 antibodies showed higher sensitivity (90.91%) and specificity (89.47%) than cHSP10 ELISA (75.6% and 73.87%) in the secondary infertile group. Further anticHSP60 antibodies' detection had a sensitivity of 67.33% and a specificity of 90.67% in secondary infertile women when compared with DFA and PCR. Conclusions: Our data suggest that detection of anticHSP60 antibodies would help in early prognosis of immunopathological sequelae in C. trachomatis-infected women and thereby in instituting appropriate therapy for controlling C. trachomatis infection at an early stage.