Tropheryma whipplei Circulating in Blood Monocytes

Abstract

Whipple’s disease is an infection that affects primarily the intestine, but some cases involve the heart valve, the peripheral lymph nodes, the joints, and the central nervous system.1 whipplei (formerly T. whippelii, the causative agent of Whip- ple’s disease)2 against the bacterium3 valve2 or duodenal specimen3 Recently, the establishment of Tropheryma in culture allowed the generation of antibodies that we used for immunostaining the of infected patients. Here, we report the immunodetection of T. whipplei in the circulating monocytes of a patient with untreated Whipple’s disease. A 70-year-old man was hospitalized in December 2000 for fatigue, weight loss, and a left subclavicular lymphade- nopathy. Polymerase chain reaction and immunostaining of biopsy specimens of the lymph node and the duodenum...