An animal model of trachoma: IV. The failure of local immunosuppression to reveal inapparent infection.

Repeated inoculation with live chlamydia trachomatis is necessary to develop a model of trachoma in monkeys. However, it is not possible to reisolate chlamydia from the monkey's eye after the first 1 or 2 months of weekly reinoculation. The effect of subconjunctival steroid injections in monkeys that had received weekly inoculations with live chlamydia is reported. Despite a profound suppression of local inflammation, steroid treatment did not produce a reactivation of identifiable chlamydial infection as determined by repeated chlamydial cultures and cytologic examinations.