Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a physiological process which occurs during the cellular life cycle, and can also appear during an infection with microorganisms. In the infected cell this process can be treated as a peculiar “escape” of organism from the infection, but on the other hand it can be induced or inhibited, which enables pathogens, especially the intracellular ones, to survive. Bacteria of the order Chlamydiales are intracellular pathogens which can stimulate or inhibit the apoptosis of infected cells. In this paper we present the impact of infection with those bacteria on the apoptosis of mammal cells.
The aim of the study was to show the dynamics of lymphocytes T (receptor CD5+ ), Th (receptor CD4+), Tc/Ts (receptor CD8+), B (receptor IgM . mu chain), as well as lymphocytes with receptor CD25+ in rabbits immunised with Chlamydophila abortus and Chlamydophila psittaci. Moreover, a serological test was carried out. The analysis of the results indicated that the immunisation of rabbits with the studied antigens in case of lymphocytes T and their subpopulations caused a similar increase and decrease of their amount and in case of lymphocytes B only an increase. Those changes are noted in 7th . 14th day after the immunisation and they persist until 42nd . 56th day of the experiment. Moreover, the positive titre of antibodies was noticed on the 35th . 42nd day after the immunisation, i.e. 4-6 weeks after the changes in the amount of lymphocytes.
Bacteria from genera Chlamydia (Ch.) and Chlamydophila (Chi.) are very pathogenic and may infect humans and animals. They also may cause latent infection, especially in animals. In this paper we discuss the non-specific and specific cellular and humoral immunity in farm animals, after infection or immunisation with Chlamydia sp. and Chlamydophila sp. bacteria. It has been shown, that the infection or immunisation with the microorganisms influenced the activity of polimorphonuclear cells (PMN) and mononuclear cells (MN) in the process of phagocytosis. It has also been shown that the bacteria influenced the amount and activity of lysozyme, activities of myeloperoxidase and lysosomal enzymes. Infection or immunisation with the microorganisms was demonstrated to affect numbers of lymphocytes T and B and those of their subpopulation as well as the activity of cytokines and levels of scrum and secreted immunoglobulins. The changes were detected just a few hours after infection or immunisation and persisted for a few days to a few decades.