Reaction following treatment of murine borreliosis and Shwartzman type reacion with borrelial sonicates.

Treatment of experimental murine borreliosis induced an acute transient fall in temperature, leucopenia and thrombocytopenia with appearance of circulating 'endotroxin-like' material. This reaction to treatment could be reproduced by the inoculatioh of borrelial sonicates into infected mice or by two injections of the same sonicate given 24 hours apart, into normal mice. Sensitization or precipitation of the reaction could not be induced by E. coli lipopolysaccharide, although a reaction indistinguishable from the reaction to treatment could be provoked in mice by two successive injections of lipopolysaccharide given 24 hours apart. The nature of this reaction in mice was investigated and the relation of both reactions to the Shwartzman reaction, Endotoxin.