Blood Transcriptional Endotypes in Women with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

By comparing blood mRNA responses of women with biopsy confimed Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and/or Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) induced pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) to those from women with CT and/or GC infection limited to their cervix and asymptomatic uninfected women determined via microarray, we discovered important pathogenic mechanisms in PID and response differences that provide a pathway to biomarker discovery. Women with GC and/or CT-induced PID exhibit overexpression of myeloid cell genes and suppression of protein synthesis, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, and T-cell specific genes. Coinfected women exhibited the greatest activation of cell death pathways and suppression of responses essential for adaptive immunity. Blood microarrays reveal discrete pathobiological endotypes in women with PID that are driven by pathogen invasion of the upper genital tract. Total RNA was extracted from whole blood collected in Tempus™ Blood RNA tubes of participants in this study at enrollment.