DIFFERENT GENOSPECIES OF BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI ARE ASSOCIATED WITH DISTINCT CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF LYME BORRELIOSIS

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato has been subdivided into three genospe cies: B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. garinii, and B. burgdorferi gro up VS461. Sixty-eight isolates cultured from patients and 26 strains f rom ticks were characterized with use of SDS-PAGE, western blotting, a nd rRNA gene restriction analysis. Fifty-seven of 58 strains obtained from the skin of 70 patients who had erythema migrans or acrodermatiti s chronica atrophicans were of group VS461, whereas the genotype of th e remaining strain was unidentifiable. Of 10 strains cultured from CSF (n = 3) and skin (n = 7) of 20 patients with extracutaneous symptoms of Lyme borreliosis, nine were B. garinii and one was B. burgdorferi s ensu stricto. Of these 20 patients, 17 had neuroborreliosis, one had a rthritis and carditis, one had myalgia, and one had erythema and arthr algia. All 26 isolates from ticks were of group VS461. In conclusion, infections due to group VS461 and B. garinii are associated with cutan eous and extracutaneous symptoms, respectively. Our findings suggest t hat B. burgdorferi genotypes have different pathogenic potentials.