Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Turku, Finland.
APMIS. 2010 Sep 1;118(9):665-73. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0463.2010.02615.x.
We have earlier shown that Borrelia burgdorferi-infected and ceftriaxone-treated mice have viable spirochetes in their body, since immunosuppressive treatment allows B. burgdorferi to be detected by culture. However, the niche of the persisting spirochetes remained unknown. In the present study, we analyzed the tissues of B. burgdorferi-infected and ceftriaxone-treated mice by culture and PCR to reveal the foci of persisting spirochetes. C3H/HeN mice were infected via intradermal needle injection with B. burgdorferi s.s. N40. The mice were treated as follows: (i) short (5 days) and (ii) long (18 days) course of ceftriaxone at 2 weeks of infection and killed after either 10 or 30 weeks, or (iii) the mice received ceftriaxone for 5 days at 18 weeks of infection and were killed 21 weeks after the treatment. All samples of ceftriaxone-treated mice were culture negative, whereas all untreated controls were culture positive. Importantly, B. burgdorferi DNA was detected in the joints of 30-100% of the treated mice. In conclusion, these results combined with earlier results suggest that the joint or a tissue adjacent to the joint is the niche of persisting B. burgdorferi in ceftriaxone-treated mice.
我们之前已经表明，感染伯氏疏螺旋体并用头孢曲松治疗的小鼠体内仍存在有活力的螺旋体，因为免疫抑制治疗允许通过培养来检测伯氏疏螺旋体。然而，持续存在的螺旋体的栖息地仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们通过培养和 PCR 分析了感染伯氏疏螺旋体并用头孢曲松治疗的小鼠的组织，以揭示持续存在的螺旋体的焦点。C3H/HeN 小鼠通过皮内针注射感染伯氏疏螺旋体 s.s. N40。小鼠的治疗方案如下：（i）短期（5 天）和（ii）长期（18 天）头孢曲松疗程，在感染后 2 周开始治疗，并在 10 或 30 周后处死，或（iii）在感染后 18 周用头孢曲松治疗 5 天，并在治疗后 21 周处死。所有用头孢曲松治疗的小鼠的样本均培养阴性，而所有未治疗的对照均培养阳性。重要的是，在 30-100%的治疗小鼠的关节中检测到伯氏疏螺旋体 DNA。总之，这些结果与之前的结果结合表明，关节或关节附近的组织是头孢曲松治疗小鼠中持续存在的伯氏疏螺旋体的栖息地。
