EFFECTS OF IXODES-SCAPULARIS AND BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI ON MODULATION OF THE HOST IMMUNE-RESPONSE - INDUCTION OF A TH2 CYTOKINE RESPONSE IN LYME-DISEASE-SUSCEPTIBLE (C3H HEJ) MICE BUT NOT IN DISEASE-RESISTANT (BALB/C) MICE/
N. Zeidner et al., EFFECTS OF IXODES-SCAPULARIS AND BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI ON MODULATION OF THE HOST IMMUNE-RESPONSE - INDUCTION OF A TH2 CYTOKINE RESPONSE IN LYME-DISEASE-SUSCEPTIBLE (C3H HEJ) MICE BUT NOT IN DISEASE-RESISTANT (BALB/C) MICE/, Infection and immunity, 65(8), 1997, pp. 3100-3106
Previous studies have demonstrated that both Ixodes scapularis saliva
and Borrelia burgdorferi antigens modulated lymphokines and monokines
in vitro, The studies presented here were designed to delineate the ro
le of I. scapularis and B, burgdorferi in modulation of the host immun
e response in vivo, Infestation of C3H/HeJ mice with infected I. scapu
laris resulted in an up regulation of IL-4 as early as 8 days after ti
ck infestation, while the levels of T helper cell type 1 (TH1) cytokin
es, interleukin-2 (IL-2) and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), were signif
icantly decreased by days 10 to 12. In contrast, the cytokine profile
of BALB/c mice exposed to infected nymphal ticks resulted in only tran
sient alterations in IL-4, IL-2, and IFN-gamma production throughout a
12-day period postinfestation. Although the IL-10 level was elevated
in both C3H/HeJ and BALB/c mice infested with infected nymphal ticks,
no significant difference in the levels of IL-10 was noted between the
mouse strains. Flow-cytometric analysis demonstrated increases in the
numbers of splenic B-cell and CD4(+) lymphocytes in C3H/HeJ but not B
ALB/c mice exposed to infected ticks. Cell depletion experiments with
C3H/HeJ mice demonstrated that CD4(+) cells were the sole producers of
IFN-gamma, and IL-10 while both CD4(+) and CD8(+) splenocytes contrib
uted to the production of IL-2 and IL-4, These findings suggest that B
and CD4(+) splenocytes are activated, increase in number, and produce
a polarized TH2 response in C3H/HeJ mice exposed to infected I. scapu
laris, Given that C3H/HeJ mice are susceptible to Lyme disease and the
initial TH2 polarization is not evident in BALB/c mice, effective con
trol of this response may have ramifications for spirochete transmissi
on in vivo.