Studies of non-ciliated (secretory) Fallopian tube epithelial cells show that gonococcal infection does not induce pro-apoptosis transcripts TNFRSF1B, TNFRSF1A, TNFRSF4, TNFRSF6, TNFRSF10A, TNFRSF10B, TNFRSF10D, BAK1, BAX, BLK, HRK, or MCL1 but does induce pro-apoptotic caspase 394,95. Here, MCL1 is linked to bacterial sexually transmitted disease.