{"doi":"10.1371/journal.ppat.1011914","title":"Elimination of Chlamydia muridarum from the female reproductive tract is IL-12p40 dependent, but independent of Th1 and Th2 cells","abstract":"Chlamydia vaccine approaches aspire to induce Th1 cells for optimal protection, despite the fact that there is no direct evidence demonstrating Th1-mediated Chlamydia clearance from the female reproductive tract (FRT). We recently reported that T-bet-deficient mice can resolve primary Chlamydia infection normally, undermining the potentially protective role of Th1 cells in Chlamydia immunity. Here, we show that T-bet-deficient mice develop robust Th17 responses and that mice deficient in Th17 cells exhibit delayed bacterial clearance, demonstrating that Chlamydia-specific Th17 cells represent an underappreciated protective population. Additionally, Th2-deficient mice competently clear cervicovaginal infection. Furthermore, we show that sensing of IFN-γ by non-hematopoietic cells is essential for Chlamydia immunity, yet bacterial clearance in the FRT does not require IFN-γ secretion by CD4 T cells. Despite the fact that Th1 cells are not necessary for Chlamydia clearance, protective immunity to Chlamydia is still dependent on MHC class-II-restricted CD4 T cells and IL-12p40. Together, these data point to IL-12p40-dependent CD4 effector maturation as essential for Chlamydia immunity, and Th17 cells to a lesser extent, yet neither Th1 nor Th2 cell development is critical. Future Chlamydia vaccination efforts will be more effective if they focus on induction of this protective CD4 T cell population.","journal":"PLoS Pathogens","year":2024,"id":453887,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9526,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1276724,"name":"Kevin D. Fong","orcid":"0000-0002-8573-0576","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":707389,"name":"Claire Morris","orcid":"0000-0002-3527-8163","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":660963,"name":"Alana Nguyen","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":900637,"name":"Claire E. Depew","orcid":"0000-0002-9341-9286","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366401,"name":"Stephen J. McSorley","orcid":"0000-0002-6363-3222","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":859076,"name":"Jordan Rixon","orcid":"0000-0002-8313-0702","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":67,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:03:03.428151Z","pmid":"38166152","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}