Lyme disease - Persistent joint swelling and borrelia-specific antibodies in

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed

Microbes Infect. 2006 May 30;

Persistent joint swelling and borrelia-specific antibodies in
Borrelia garinii-infected mice after eradication of vegetative
spirochetes with antibiotic treatment.

Yrjanainen H, Hytonen J, Soderstrom KO, Oksi J, Hartiala K,
Viljanen MK.

Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Turku,
Kiinamyllynkatu 13, 20520, Turku, Finland.

We wanted to study the pathogenesis and the long-term
manifestations
of Borrelia garinii infection in SJL and C3H/He mice. We report here
that B. garinii A218 causes a persisting infection in these mouse
strains. Mice infected with intracutaneous inoculation of B. garinii at

4-5 weeks of age developed a disseminated infection and joint swelling
within 2 weeks of inoculation and remained infected with joint symptoms

until the end of follow-ups of up to 52 weeks. Treatment with
ceftriaxone or ampicillin at 18 or 44 weeks of infection did not affect

the joint swelling during the follow-ups of 19 and 8 weeks,
respectively. However, B. garinii could not be cultured from any of the

post mortem tissue samples of the treated mice, whereas the spirochete
grew from samples of all untreated infected animals. borrelia-specific
IgG antibodies were detectable after 2 weeks of infection, and in late
infection, all mice had high anti-borrelia IgG levels. Antibiotic
treatment had no effect on antibody levels. Histology showed only
slight
changes in the joints of the infected mice with occasional lymphocyte
infiltration, synovial proliferation and slight involvement of the
Achilles' tendon. No difference was seen in the findings between
ceftriaxone-treated and untreated mice. The results suggest that the
presence of vegetative spirochetes is no prerequisite for persisting
joint symptoms and elevated anti-borrelia IgG levels in these B.
garinii-infected mice.

PMID: 16797205 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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