Assessment of in vivo epithelial disruption to model anorectal Chlamydia infection in mice

N-9 pretreatment of mice before anorectal inoculation with 1 x 10^4 IFUs of luciferase-expressing Chlamydia muridarum increased infection reproducibility and persistence measured by IVIS imaging.

• Why it matters: Few anorectal Chlamydia models limit vaccine and therapeutic testing and hinder understanding of infection dynamics at this anatomical site.
• What they did: Mice received anorectal physical disruption (calcium alginate swab) and/or chemical disruption (nonoxynal-9) 24 hours before inoculation with Luc-Cm, with progression tracked by IVIS and shedding quantified by qPCR.
• The result: Although Q{beta}-VD4-Cm immunization did not reduce Luc-Cm infection in the anorectal tract, N-9 enabled a reproducible model for site-specific vaccine evaluation.