Immune Response and Western Blotting

Infect Immun 1994 Jun 62:6 2625-7

Tick transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi to inbred strains of mice induces an antibody response to P39 but not to outer surface protein A

Golde WT, Kappel KJ, Dequesne G, Feron C, Plainchamp D, Capiau C, Lobet Y

 Infect Immun 1995 Dec 63:12 4795-801

Variation in antigenicity and infectivity of derivatives of Borrelia burgdorferi, strain B31, maintained in the natural, zoonotic cycle compared with maintenance in culture.

Golde WT, Dolan MC

To determine whether similar changes occur in the natural transmission cycle, we reisolated strain B31 from mouse skin at the  5. zoonotic cycle. This reisolated derivative

• had the same infectivity as the parent B31 strain,
• had lost the 8-kb supercoiled plasmid  present in B31, and
• induced a gross serum antibody response indistinguishable from the B31 immune response.

The major histocompatibility complex-restricted response of recombinant inbred strains of mice  to natural tick transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi.

Golde WT, Burkot TR, Sviat S, Keen MG, Mayer LW, Johnson BJ, Piesman J

In this study, we report the antibody response of recombinant inbred strains of mice of the H-2^b, H-2^d, and H-2^k haplotypes, infected with B. burgdorferi as a result of exposure to infected I. dammini.

1. The patterns of antibody response assayed by Western blot analysis indicate significant major histocompatibility complex (MHC) restriction to bacterial antigens within the first 2 mo of infection in mice (i.e. during this period only certain haplotypes have contributed to the immune response, J. Gruber).
2. Other bacterial antigens induce a significant response across the MHC haplotypes tested
• when assayed on the same bacterial strain used to transmit the infection (homologous strains, J. Gruber),
• but do not crossreact with the same proteins derived from heterologous strains of B. burgdorferi.
• No response to OSPA was detected at any time during the 60-d period we analyzed this infection.
3. A third group of bacterial antigens appear to generate a MHC-nonrestricted response, and this lack of restriction is maintained when assaying the crossreactivity of the response with other strains of B. burgdorferi. These proteins may provide more accurate diagnostic probes than those currently in use.

Finally, there appears to be a significant difference in the expression of most bacterial antigens when the spirochete is cultured for  many passages since the same strain of bacterium isolated from low-passage and high-passage preparations exhibit different banding patterns in Western blots when assayed with the same sera. The same is true for patient infections.