Chlamydia trachomatis infection in African American women who exclusively have sex with women

Abstract

Little is known about whether Chlamydia trachomatis can be sexually transmitted between women or how often it occurs in women who have sex with women (WSW). We investigated Chlamydia trachomatis prevalence and serum Chlamydia trachomatis-specific antibody responses among African American WSW who reported a lifetime history of sex only with women (exclusive WSW) (n = 21) vs. an age-matched group of women reporting sex with women and men (WSWM) (n = 42). Participants completed a survey, underwent a pelvic examination in which a cervical swab was collected for Chlamydia trachomatis nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT), and had serum tested for anti-Chlamydia trachomatis IgG1 and IgG3 antibodies using a Chlamydia trachomatis elementary body-based ELISA. No exclusive WSW had a positive Chlamydia trachomatis NAAT vs. 5 (11.9%) WSWM having a positive Chlamydia trachomatis NAAT (p = 0.16). Compared with WSWM, WSW were significantly less likely to be Chlamydia trachomatis seropositive (7 [33.3%] vs. 29 [69%], p = 0.007). Among Chlamydia trachomatis seropositive women, all were seropositive by IgG1, and the magnitude of Chlamydia trachomatis-specific IgG1 responses did not differ in Chlamydia trachomatis-seropositive WSW vs. WSWM. In conclusion, Chlamydia trachomatis seropositivity was relatively common in exclusive African American WSW, though significantly less common than in African American WSWM.

Keywords: African American; Chlamydia; WSW; antibody; immunoglobulin; sexually transmitted infection; women.

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

© The Author(s) 2016.

Figures

Figure 1.

Antibody subclass-specific responses detected by C. trachomatis elementary body ELISA in exclusive WSW and WSWM. Serum anti-C. trachomatis IgG1 and IgG3 responses in exclusive WSW (n = 21) and WSWM (n = 42) are shown as dot plot graphs of OD405 values. Solid horizontal lines illustrate the median and interquartile range responses in subjects who are seropositive for the shown antibody subclass. The broken line (- - -) indicates the cutoff OD value for a positive response for IgG1 (≥0.35) and IgG3 (≥0.1), and the number of subjects seronegative for the shown antibody subclass are listed below the broken line. The magnitude of the IgG1 response did not significantly differ between the 7 of 21 (33.3%) exclusive WSW and 29 of 42 (69%) WSWM who were seropositive by IgG1 (median OD 1.16 vs. 1.45). Although IgG3 seropositivity occurred less often in exclusive WSW (3 of 21 [14.3%]) than in WSWM (24 of 42 [57.1%]), the magnitude of the IgG3 response was stronger in IgG3 seropositive exclusive WSW vs. WSWM (median OD 0.88 vs. 0.28; p = 0.03).