: from a bovine abortigenic agent to a potential cause of human adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Abstract

is a strict intracellular bacterium belonging to theorder, which also encompasses important human and animal pathogens, includingand. Like all other members of the order,displays a biphasic developmental cycle, alternating between infectious extracellular and replicative intracellular forms.First isolated from a bovine aborted foetus,was later demonstrated to be associated, in women, with adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as miscarriage. Furthermore, recent studies have demonstrated a high prevalence of anti-antibodies in asymptomatic women who consulted doctors regarding infertility problems, and in the male patients of infertile couples. Additionally, a role for this bacterium in respiratory tract infections has been suggested, as it has also been recovered from respiratory samples.Although the cause of miscarriage is not identified in ∼50% of cases, nowadays, no systematic diagnostic testing for the presence ofis routinely performed. Implementing large-scale testing in women with reproductive health issues would undoubtedly increase our knowledge ofprevalence and its implications for disease outcomes.