A model of infection wherein non-immune, Chlamydia-infected epithelial cells recruit immune cells into affected tissues is uniquely persuasive, given epithelial cells secrete a host of pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g. IL-1α, IL-8, GROα, GM-CSF) in both murine and in vitro models of infection (Eckert et al., 1997; Rasmussen et al., 1997; Darville et al., 2001; Finethy et al., 2016). This evidence concerns the gene IL1A and infection.