Effects of doxycycline and antiinflammatory agents on experimentally induced chlamydial upper genital tract infection in female macaques

Abstract

To evaluate the effects of antimicrobial and antiinflammatory drugs on oviductal pathology in chronic chlamydial upper genital tract infection, the fallopian tubes of 40 female Macaca nemestrina were inoculated with Chlamydia trachomatis and randomly assigned to treatment with doxycycline (n = 10), doxycycline plus ibuprofen (n = 10), doxycycline plus triamcinolone (n = 10), or placebo (n = 10). Before therapy, all animals were positive for culture or ligase chain reaction (or both), and laparoscopy demonstrated the presence of upper genital tract pathology. After therapy, cervical cultures remained positive in 5 animals given placebo versus 0 given doxycycline alone (P = .03), 0 given doxycycline plus ibuprofen (P = .03), and 1 given doxycycline plus triamcinolone (P = .14). At hysterectomy, neither gross nor histologic pathology was affected by any of the treatment regimens, but immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization evidence of persistent tubal infection was significantly more frequent among animals given placebo or doxycycline plus antiinflammatory agents than among those given doxycycline alone.