Chlamydial infection of conjunctival tissues in culture.

Baboon conjunctival cells removed as scrapings from the conjunctiva could be disaggregated and maintained in culture for up to 5 days without appreciable loss of viability. Attempts to infect cultures with a TRIC agent or its “fast” variant were unsuccessful. Nevertheless such cultures appeared to support the growth of TRIC agent since conjunctival cells obtained from infected baboons developed inclusions while maintained in vitro. Cell viability and tissue structure were preserved over 6 days organ culture of conjunctivae. Organ cultures supported the growth of chlamydiae: the TRIC fast variant grew in low titre in baboon cultures; the highly virulent gp-ic agent grew to high titre in guinea-pig cultures. Frequent inclusion bodies and damaged epithelium were seen in histological examination of infected guinea-pig cultures; occasional sub-epithelial inclusions were detected, some of which were atypical in morphology.