Molecular epidemiology of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infection in patients attending sexually transmitted diseases clinics / 中华皮肤科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To determine the prevalence and genotype profiles of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis and their related factors in patients attending sexually transmitted diseases (STD) clinics in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Methods C. trachomatis was screened by a plasmid PCR in 598 patients attending STD clinics. Then, positive specimens underwent nested-PCR to amplify the major outer membrane protein 1 (ompl) gene. The amplicons of ompl gene were digested by restriction endonucleases Alu I plus Hinf I and Cfol . C. trachomatis was differentiated according to the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns. Results Out of the 598 samples, 83 were positive for plasmid-PCR. The prevalence of chlamydial infection was 13.9% with no significant difference between male and female patients. Nested-PCR based RFLP analysis showed that genotype E amounted to 27.7% (23/83), F 20.5% (17/83), D 13.2%(11/83), G 12.0%(10/83), K 7.2%(6/83), H 4.8%(4/83), I 3.6% (3/83), J 3.6%(3/83)and uncertain types 7.2% (6/83). Visible symptoms were observed less frequently in infections with C. trachomatis genotypes E and F compared with the other genotypes, while low abdominal pain occurred in 80% of infections with type G. Conclusions A certain proportion of out-patients attending STD clinic are infected with various types of C. trachomatis in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The polymorphism of ompl gene may serve as a useful tool in molecular epidemiological studies of C. trachomatis.