Rogovskyy Artem S, Pliasas Vasilis C, Buhrer Ryan, Lewy Keith, Wiener Dominique J, Jung Yoonsung, Bova Jonathan, Rogovska Yuliya, Kim Sun J, Jeon Eunhye Grace
Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
Comparative Medicine Program, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA.
Infect Immun. 2024 Dec 10;92(12):e0038224. doi: 10.1128/iai.00382-24. Epub 2024 Nov 13.
As white-footed mice, , are considered the primary animal reservoir of (), the main agent of Lyme disease (LD) in the United States, these animals represent the most relevant model to study borrelial spirochetes in the context of their natural life cycle. Previous studies have consistently demonstrated that although white-footed mice respond immunologically to the invasion of the Lyme pathogen, adults do not develop a clinically detectable disease. This tolerance, which is common for mammalian reservoirs of different pathogens, contrasts with detrimental anti-borrelial responses of C3H mice, a widely used animal model of LD, which always result in a clinical manifestation (e.g., arthritis). The current investigation is a follow-up of our recent study that already showed a relative quiescence of the spleen transcriptome for -infected white-footed mice compared to the infected C3H mice. In an effort to identify the mechanism behind this tolerance, in this study, we have evaluated an extensive list of hematological and biochemical parameters measured in white-footed mice after their 70-day-long borrelial infection. Despite missing reference intervals for mice, our sex- and age-matched uninfected controls allowed us to assess the blood and serum parameters. In addition, for our assessment, we also utilized behavioral, immunological, and histological analyses. Collectively, by using the metrics reported herein, the present results have demonstrated clinical unresponsiveness of mice to the borrelial infection, presenting no restriction to a long-term host-pathogen co-existence.
白足鼠被认为是美国莱姆病(LD)的主要病原体伯氏疏螺旋体的主要动物宿主,这些动物是在其自然生命周期背景下研究疏螺旋体的最相关模型。先前的研究一致表明,尽管白足鼠对莱姆病原体的入侵会产生免疫反应,但成年鼠不会发展出临床可检测到的疾病。这种耐受性在不同病原体的哺乳动物宿主中很常见,与广泛使用的LD动物模型C3H小鼠有害的抗伯氏反应形成对比,C3H小鼠总是会出现临床表现(如关节炎)。目前的研究是我们最近一项研究的后续,该研究已经表明,与感染的C3H小鼠相比,感染伯氏疏螺旋体的白足鼠脾脏转录组相对静止。为了确定这种耐受性背后的机制,在本研究中,我们评估了白足鼠在长达70天的伯氏感染后测量的一系列广泛的血液学和生化参数。尽管缺少白足鼠的参考区间,但我们性别和年龄匹配的未感染对照使我们能够评估血液和血清参数。此外,为了进行评估,我们还利用了行为、免疫和组织学分析。总体而言,通过使用本文报告的指标,目前的结果表明白足鼠对伯氏感染无临床反应,对长期宿主-病原体共存没有限制。