Mapping immunodominant antigens and H-2-linked antibody responses in mice urogenitally infected with Chlamydia muridarum

To identify immunodominant antigens and MHC-restricted antibody responses, seven different strains of mice were intravaginally infected with Chlamydia muridarum and compared for antibody responses to 257 C. muridarum proteins. The 7 strains of mice recognized a total of 109 proteins as antigens, of which, 5 antigens (TC0660, TC0727, TC0828, TC0726 & TC0268) were each recognized by 60% or more mice from each mouse strain and thus designated as immunodominant antigens. Furthermore, antibody responses to 19 other antigens displayed strong associations with mouse H-2 haplotypes, including 6 antigens (TC0480, TC0912, TC0229, TCA04, TC0289 & TC0892) whose antibody responses were linked to H-2 ^b, 8 (TC0035, TC0387, TC0052, TC0781, TC0373, TC0117, TC0066 & TC0396) to H-2 ^d and 5 (TC0512, TC0177, TC0589, TC0794 & TC0596) to H-2 ^k haplotypes respectively. Interestingly, H-2 ^b was negatively associated with antibody responses to most of the antigens that were positively linked to H-2 ^d or H-2 ^k haplotypes. These results by mapping Chlamydia trachomatis antigens commonly recognized by mice with different strain background and H-2 genes and revealing antigen association with H-2 haplotypes have provided important information for developing chlamydial subunit vaccines and understanding chlamydial pathogenesis.