Chlamydia trachomatis infection results in a modest pro-inflammatory cytokine response and a decrease in T cell chemokine secretion in human polarized endocervical epithelial cells.

The endocervical epithelium is a major reservoir for Chlamydia trachomatis in women, and genital infections are extended in their duration. Epithelial cells act as mucosal sentinels by secreting cytokines and chemokines in response to pathogen challenge and infection. We therefore determined the signature cytokine and chemokine response of primary-like endocervix-derived epithelial cells in response to a common genital serovar (D) of C. trachomatis. For these studies, we used a recently-established polarized, immortalized, endocervical epithelial cell model (polA2EN) that maintains, in vitro, the architectural and functional characteristics of endocervical epithelial cells in vivo including the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. PolA2EN cells were susceptible to C. trachomatis infection, and chlamydiae in these cells underwent a normal developmental cycle as determined by a one-step growth curve. IL1α protein levels were increased in both apical and basolateral secretions of C. trachomatis infected polA2EN cells, but this response did not occur until 72h after infection. Furthermore, protein levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines IL6, TNFα and CXCL8 were not significantly different between C. trachomatis infected polA2EN cells and mock infected cells at any time during the chlamydial developmental cycle up to 120h post-infection. Intriguingly, C. trachomatis infection resulted in a significant decrease in the constitutive secretion of T cell chemokines IP10 and RANTES, and this required a productive C. trachomatis infection. Examination of anti-inflammatory cytokines revealed a high constitutive apical secretion of IL1ra from polA2EN cells that was not significantly modulated by C. trachomatis infection. IL-11 was induced by C. trachomatis, although only from the basolateral membrane. These results suggest that C. trachomatis can use evasion strategies to circumvent a robust pro-inflammatory cytokine and chemokine response. These evasion strategies, together with the inherent immune repertoire of endocervical epithelial cells, may aid chlamydiae in establishing, and possibly sustaining, an intracellular niche in microenvironments of the endocervix in vivo.