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Murat V. Kalayoglu, MD, PhD; Carlos Galvan, MD; Olaimatu S. Mahdi, PhD; Gerald I. Byrne, PhD; Sam Mansour, MD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2003;121:478-482.

Background  Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is a leading cause of blindness in the United States, but the mechanisms that initiate and promote the disease remain ill defined. There are several risk factors that ARMD shares with atherosclerosis, and these diseases may have similar pathogenic mechanisms that involve inflammation. Chlamydia pneumoniae, a prokaryotic pathogen that causes chronic inflammation is now emerging as a risk factor in the development of cardiovascular diseases. It is therefore plausible that this microorganism also contributes to the pathogenesis of ARMD.

Methods  To examine if C pneumoniae infection is associated with ARMD, serum samples from 25 consecutive patients with ARMD and from 18 without the disease were collected and assayed for the presence of the antibodies to C pneumoniae elementary bodies, Chlamydia trachomatis heat shock protein 60 (cHsp60), C trachomatis heat shock protein 10 (cHsp10), Escherichia coli GroEL, and E coli GroES.

Results  A serological association was found between ARMD and anti–C pneumoniae antibodies (P = .047) but not between ARMD and the anti–C trachomatis or anti–E coli heat shock protein antibodies. The association remained statistically significant after adjusting for age and smoking, both established risk factors for ARMD.

Conclusions  These data indicate that C pneumoniae infection may be associated with ARMD. Further studies on larger cohorts of individuals are necessary to determine if this pathogen plays a role in the pathogenesis of ARMD.

From the Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston (Dr Kalayoglu); the Department of Ophthalmology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif (Drs Galvan and Mansour); and the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, Wis (Drs Mahdi and Byrne). Dr Kalayoglu and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary have a proprietary interest in the data obtained from some of the experiments detailed in this article.

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