[About development of chlamydia multiple organ lesions after primary ocular infection in experiment].

Chlamidia spp. are obligate intracellular pathogens that cause a variety of diseases in humans and animals. Their generalization was proved as hematogenic spreading from the urogenital (C. trachomatis) and the respiratory (C. pneumoniae) systems. The goal was to investigate the possibility of C. trachomatis infection spreading from the primary ocular gate. 6 animals were infected by instillation in the conjunctival sack, subconjunctival and intravitreal injections of C. thachomatis culture. C. trachomatis was detected by direct immunofluorescence method in the retina, retinal pigment epithelium, choroid, brain, the pancreas, the prostate gland and the urethra after primary ocular infection. The results of our study have proved the opportunity of C. trachomatis to cause polyorganic contamination.

[Retinal lesion in experimental chlamydia eye infection].

Until the present time, ophthalmic chlamydiasis has been generally associated with diseases of auxiliary organs of the eye and its anterior segment: conjunctivitis and iridocyclitis. The morphological substrate of eye posterior segment lesion caused by C. trachomatis and C. pneumonia was studied in this investigation. The pathomorphological pattern characteristic of chlamydia-induced rabbit retinal and vitreous body lesions is composed of vitreoretinal lymphocyte-macrophageal infiltrations of varying intensity, posterior hyaloid membrane detachment, peripheral foci or folding of the retina, impaired nuclei of photoreceptors and bipolar neurons, pigment epithelial damage occurring in different concurrences in relation to the species of a causative agent and the clinical picture.

[The clinical and morphological features of Chlamydia pneumoniae-induced chorioretinitis in an experiment].

The clinical and pathomorphological features of vitreous retinochorioidal complex lesion with the pathogen Chlamydia pneumoniae were studied. Three rabbits (6 eyes) were infected with Ch. pneumoniae strain TWAR by instillation, subconjunctivally and 2 eyes were infected by intravitreally. Contamination was controlled by direct immunofluorescence and cultivation (conjunctival scrapes, venous blood). A postmortem study was conducted 128 days later, by employing an immunohistochemical analysis. On days 7-14, all cases showed the signs of a uveal reaction; 4 cases developed chorioretinitis. In 2 cases, the process ran as endophthalmitis with minimal clinical manifestations. The rate of the process was decreased by days 40-50. On the postmortem study, all the cases displayed lymphocytic-macrophageal infiltration in the vitreous body and retina in the presence of retinal focal dystrophic changes. An immunohistochemical study revealed the pathogen in different retinal layers (both inside and outside the chorioretinal foci) in all 6 cases and in the preretinal layers of the vitreous body in 5 cases. The pathogen Ch. pneumoniae is rather highly tropic to the structures of the visual organ and it is able to induce chronic lesion of the structures of the posterior portion of the eye portion with varying clinical manifestations. Dystrophic changes in infected tissues, the vitreous body and chorioretinal complex in particular, are a result of a chronic inflammatory process.

[The specific features of a structural lesion in the ocular posterior segment in experimental chlamydial infection].

The investigation was undertaken to study changes in the structure of the vitreoretinal complex in experimental chlamydial infection. Six rabbits were inoculated with Ch. pneumonia (6 eyes) and Ch. trachomatis (6 eyes) via instillations, subconjunctivally and intravitreally. Clinical and pathomorphological study was conducted during 128 days, by using immunohistochemical techniques. All modes of inoculation resulted in the development of an intraocular infectious process as uveitis, choriorenitis, and vitreitis (endophthalmitis) of varying degrees--from subclinical to severe. Immunohistochemical study revealed the pathogen in the structures of the ocular posterior segment and in venous blood in all cases. When locally inoculated, chlamydial infection becomes disseminated, by afflicting the ocular posterior segment, no matter what the mode of inoculation is applied. The clinical picture of the lesion widely varies from subclinical manifestations to a severe process.

[Local ocular immunity parameters in chronic rhino- or odontogenic infection].

Thirty-four patients with foci of chronic rhino- or odontogenic infection were examined. All the patients underwent physical examination, biochemical blood analysis, immunological test for immunoglobulins A, G, and M, circulating immune complexes, leukocyte migration inhibition test with phytohemagglutinin, Con A, with antigens of the retina, vitreous body, iris, and lens, scrapes from the dentogingival pocket, conjunctival and nasal cavities for Chlamydia, followed by direct immunofluorescence, polymerase chain reaction, and culture. Chronic rhino- or odontogenic infection foci impair local ocular immunity in ophthalmologically healthy patients. The foci of chronic rhinogenic infection cause more pronounced changes in systemic and local ocular immunity than those of chronic odontogenic infection. In half the patients with chronic rhino- or odontogenic infection foci, Chlamydia are detectable in the oral, nasal, and ocular mucosae, which suggests that there is generalized infection and there is a need for complex sanitation of the body. Isolated local treatment for Chlamydia infection is not promising.

[To the detection rate of Chlamydia infection in regmatogenous retinal detachment].

Regmatogenous, or primary, retinal detachment is a vision-threatening condition resulting from retinal rupture. Inflammation and autoimmune processes are of great importance in the pathogenesis of this disease. In this connection, the purpose of the study was to reveal the incidence of Chlamydia infection in regmatogenous retinal detachment. Subretinal fluid (SRF) aspirates and conjunctival scrapes from 50 patients with regmatogenous retinal detachment were studied by direct immunofluorescence test and polymerase chain reaction for Chlamydia trachomatis. The latter was found in 74% of SRF samples and in 90% of conjunctival scapes (in a total of 47 (94%) patients). The findings suggest that regmatogenous retinal detachment is associated with Ch. trachomatis contamination of the organ of vision in most cases. In retinal detachment, it is expedient to include tests for Ch. trachomatis into a complex of diagnostic methods and, when detected, to consider whether antichlamydial therapy is performed.

[To the role of Chlamydia infection in the development of dry eye].

The study deals with the possible etiological role of Chlamydia, Mycoplasma, Ureaplasma, and bacteroid infections in the development of chronic conjunctivitis and dry eye (DE). A hundred and fifty patients with DE and chronic conjunctivitis were examined. Conjunctival scrapes were examined by direct immunofluorescence for evidence of Chlamydia, Mycoplasma, Ureaplasma, and bacteroid infections. DE was verified by the Schirmer test and the Norn test. Ninety-five (63.3%) persons were found to be infected. GE was diagnosed in 84 (56%) of the 150 patients. Analysis of infection rates revealed Chlamydia, Mycoplasma, Ureaplasma as mono- and mixed infection in 63.3, 50.6, and 35.3, respectively, and bacteroids as mixed infection in 32.6%. Chlamydia was detected in the conjunctiva in the vast majority of patients with DE (90.5%). Chlamydia infection of the conjunctiva is one of the causes of artificial DE. Conjunctival Chlamydia affliction is manifested by the clinical picture of chronic slowly progressive inflammation with the progression of DE after a latent period of about 2-3 years.

[Level of parasitic contact in colonies of the little suslik in the semideserts of western Kazakhstan]. / Uroven' parazitarnogo kontakta v poseleniiakh malogo suslika v polupustyniakh zapadnogo Kazakhstana.

Field experiments were conducted during the settling of young animals of Citellus pygmaeus in four areas 4 to 13.6 hectares in size. From 3 to 6 animals were caught in each area and labeled by administering radioactive substance (0.5 micrograms of glycine 14C or methionine 35S) and colouring hair on the head. In a day or two labeled sousliks were caught again and in 6-7 days a total catching of animals and collection of ectoparasites from their hair and burrows done. In al, 942 sousliks were caught in the experimental areas and 2624 specimens of fleas of different species and 2305 ticks of R. schulzei collected. The average number of fleas which were labeled on one little souslik for a day was 0.1 to 2.3. The number of labeled fleas in the above areas coincided with the number of fleas infected with plague in the areas of epizootia. The level of parasitic contact in settlements of little souslik cannot provide the development of plague epizootia by transmission of the agent through fleas.

[Characteristics of the interspecies relationship of flea images based on 5 species (Siphonaptera) infesting meridian gerbils]. / Nekotorye osobennosti mezhvidovykh otnoshenii imago blokh na primere piati vidov (Siphonaptera) na poludennykh peschankakh.

Many years of observations (1966-1981) in the southern part of Volga-Ural sands prove interspecific interactions between five species of fleas, specific parasites of Meriones meridianus, following the Gause's principle. The major mechanism for avoiding interspecific competition for the host is a temporal separation of the five species of fleas. During every season of the year, independent of the exchange of one species of fleas by others, their number on the infested host is maintained on the stable level which is regulated by overdispersion of fleas in the host population.