detection of genomic dna of chlamydia pneumonia in atherosclerotic plaques of coronary arteries

introduction: respiratory pathogen, chlamydia pneumoniae, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease. previous studies have demonstrated an antichlamydial seroresponse to be a cardiovascular risk factor and coronary atheromata to contain chlamyial components in varing proportions. endovascular demonstration of bacterial dna is required to provide evidence for an infectious component in atherosclerosis. material and methods: atherectomy specimens from 102 patients who under- went surgery were examined for the presence of chlamydia pneumoniae by polymerase chain reaction (pcr). each specimen was devided into multiple sections of 0.3 cm2, and frozen at -20²c. specimens were treated with glacial acetic acid and with a solution containing 0.32 ml sucrose, 10 mm tris - hcl, 5 mm mgcl2 and triton x-100 (1% vol/vol) and incubated at room tempreture over night. there after dna was extracted by first boiling for 20 minutes in naoh and then by use of tris buffer. dna was percipitate with sodium acetate -ethanol by standard method. results: c. pneumoniae dna was detected by pcr in atherosclerotic plaques of 23 patients (22%). conclusion: results of this study demonstrate a moderate prevalence of c. pneumoniae dna in atherosclerosis plaques. this study provides data on the possibility of c. pneumoniae involvment in the pathogenesis of atheroclerosis and additional evidence for an association between this agent and atherosclerosis.