Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of disability affecting millions of people of all ages worldwide. The pathogenesis involves an inflammatory component, but the cause of the inflammation remains incompletely understood. The intracellular bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis and C. pneumoniae have been demonstrated in patients with reactive arthritis. Both of these microorganisms can cause chronic and persistent infections, with C. trachomatis being the most common cause of reactive arthritis. This study was performed to investigate the presence of C. pneumoniae in a large number of patients with primary OA.
The study included 75 patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty. During surgery, a synovial biopsy was performed and synovial fluid drawn. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of C. pneumoniae was run on all patients, and real-time PCR of bacterial 16S rDNA was conducted on 30 of the 75 patients to screen for the presence of other bacteria.
Real-time PCR showed no evidence of the presence of C. pneumoniae in the patients' specimens, nor were other bacteria detected.
Although an inflammatory component is part of the pathogenesis of OA, we found no evidence indicating that C. pneumoniae is a stimulator of that inflammation.