RABBIT MODEL OF LYME BORRELIOSIS - ERYTHEMA MIGRANS, INFECTION-DERIVED IMMUNITY, AND IDENTIFICATION OF BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI PROTEINS ASSOCIATED WITH VIRULENCE AND PROTECTIVE IMMUNITY
Dm. Foley et al., RABBIT MODEL OF LYME BORRELIOSIS - ERYTHEMA MIGRANS, INFECTION-DERIVED IMMUNITY, AND IDENTIFICATION OF BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI PROTEINS ASSOCIATED WITH VIRULENCE AND PROTECTIVE IMMUNITY, The Journal of clinical investigation, 96(2), 1995, pp. 965-975
dErythema migrans (EM), persistent skin infection, and visceral dissem
ination can be induced reproducibly in the adult male New Zealand Whit
e rabbit by intradermal injection of as few as 10(3) Borrelia burgdorf
eri. EM was found to persist for 7+/-3 d, Skin culture positivity (inf
ection) cleared within a mean of 6.7+/-1.4 wk after infection and simi
larly visceral infection was not demonstrated after 8 wk; infection-de
rived immunity to intradermal challenge was evident 5 mo after initial
infection, The extent of the protection against EM and dermal infecti
on induced by untreated infection was directly related to the extent o
f prior in vitro passage of the B31 strain. Initial infection with as
few as 4 x 10(3) B31 passage 4 induced complete protection against EM
and skin infection upon subsequent challenge with 4 x 10(7) B31, passa
ge 4, Initial infection with B31 passage 27 led to partial protection
against EM along with complete protection against skin infection. Init
ial infection with passage 47 led to partial protection against EM, bu
t conferred no protection against skin infection, Using serum from rab
bits fully immune to reinfection, we defined a set of B. burgdorferi p
roteins present in virulent B31, but absent in the avirulent American
Type Culture Collection B31 strain, termed ''va'' for virulent strain
associated, The va proteins of B31 passages 1, 27, and 47 differed str
ikingly, thus raising the possibility that these changes may relate in
a causal way to the differences in induction of protective immunity o
bserved.