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Distribution of Chlamydia trachomatis Serotypes in Clinical Urogenital Samples from North-Eastern Croatia

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) urogenital infection and its serotype distribution from clinical samples in north-eastern Croatia. During a 3-year period, 2,379 urogenital samples were analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (A group), while 4,846 genital swabs were analyzed by direct fluorescent antibody test (B group). 132 Ct positive specimens were genotyped by omp1 gene sequencing. The prevalence rate of Ct was 3.2 % in A and 1 % in B group. The most prevalent chlamydial genotype was E (44 %), followed by F (33 %), K (11.5 %), G (8 %), J/UW (5.3 %), D-IC (4.4 %), D-B120 (1.8 %), and B/IU, J/IU, Ia/IU (0.9 % each) serotypes. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of omp1 gene were detected in E, K, and G serotypes. Some of these SNPs (C/T at position 272 and G/A at position 813 in E strain; C/T at position 884 in D strain) might represent novel omp1 variants.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all participants in our study. The authors also greatly appreciate the help received from Bojan Sarkanj B.Sc. for data analysis. We wish to express our gratitude to Drs. Marcela Covic, and Irina Abaza for their generous advice, critical input for to the development of this study and their help with article revisions. This study was supported by Institute of Public Health for the Osijek-Baranya County and by Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport grant #309-0061194-2023 (to GL).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Institute of Public Health Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

    Zinka Bošnjak, Magdalena Perić, Nataša Ružman, Ivana Roksandić Križan, Arlen Antolović-Požgain & Dubravka Vuković

  2. DNA Laboratory, University of Osijek School of Medicine, Osijek, Croatia

    Snježana Džijan, Dinko Pavlinić & Gordan Lauc

  3. Department of School of Medicine, Institute of Public Health Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

    Jelena Burazin

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  1. Zinka Bošnjak
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  2. Snježana Džijan
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Correspondence to Zinka Bošnjak.

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Bošnjak, Z., Džijan, S., Pavlinić, D. et al. Distribution of Chlamydia trachomatis Serotypes in Clinical Urogenital Samples from North-Eastern Croatia. Curr Microbiol 64, 552–560 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-012-0106-7

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