The researcher team, led by Prof. Thomas Meyer and Dr. Mirjana Kessler from the Department of Molecular Biology at the MPI, have cultivated fallopian tube organoids, small organ-like structures made from normal human fallopian tube cells, obtained from patient tissue. The organoids recapitulate the structure of the human fallopian tube. The mini fallopian tubes were infected with Chlamydia trachomatis and observed for several months. For the first time, the team has presented human ovarian tissue in the petri dish in 2015.

The scientists discovered that the fallopian tube cells react to the infection with the production of a signaling substance called LIF, an inflammatory signaling substance that normally occurs more frequently during fallopian tube pregnancy. Chlamydia also triggered epigenetic changes in the DNA of the cells, which persist even after the infection has been successfully cured.

Chlamydia has long been suspected of being responsible for chronic infections, fallopian tube pregnancies and ovarian cancer. The researchers have now provided a cell biological basis for further investigations.

The scientists have presented their work in Nature Communications:
Kessler, M., Hoffmann, K., Fritsche, K., Brinkmann, V., Mollenkopf, H.-J., Thieck, O., Teixeira da Costa, A. R., Braicu, E. I., Sehouli, J., Mangler, M., Berger, H. & Meyer, T. F. (2019). Chronic Chlamydia infection in human organoids increases stemness and promotes age-dependent CpG methylation. Nature Communications; 18 March, 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09144-7.pdf

Source and further information:
http://www.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de/1869737/news_publication_13235792
http://www.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de/1869829/news_publication_13235988?c=6239