Chiao J W, Pavia C, Riley M, Altmann-Lasekan W, Abolhassani M, Liegner K, Mittelman A
Department of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla 10595.
FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol. 1994 Feb;8(2):151-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-695X.1994.tb00437.x.
Modulation of cellular immune responses by the spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, was demonstrated. When cultured in the presence of sonicated Borrelia preparation (Bb), the mitogen- or antigen-stimulated proliferative responses of normal lymphocytes were consistently lowered. Bb caused the greatest reduction in Concanavalin A (ConA) or antigen-stimulated proliferation, where almost 100% reduction in proliferation could be achieved. Bb also reduced phytohemagglutinin-M (PHA) or pokeweed mitogen (PWM)-stimulated peripheral blood lymphocyte (PBL) proliferation, with the PWM proliferation being the least affected. This regulatory activity was not due to toxicity and was determined to be caused by Bb protein antigens. The degree of the proliferation reduction was directly proportional to both Bb quantity and length of exposure to lymphocytes. IL-2 production was significantly reduced from Bb-exposed lymphocytes. The entry of lymphocytes into the proliferating phases of the cell cycle was also shown to be blocked. These results have demonstrated an immune suppressive mechanism of B. burgdorferi. The magnitude of host immune responses may be dependent on the degree of suppression which is related to the spirochaete quantity and their length of presence in the host.
已证实，引起莱姆病的螺旋体伯氏疏螺旋体可调节细胞免疫反应。当在超声处理的伯氏疏螺旋体制剂（Bb）存在的情况下进行培养时，正常淋巴细胞的丝裂原或抗原刺激的增殖反应持续降低。Bb对刀豆球蛋白A（ConA）或抗原刺激的增殖抑制作用最大，增殖几乎可降低100%。Bb还降低了植物血凝素-M（PHA）或商陆丝裂原（PWM）刺激的外周血淋巴细胞（PBL）增殖，其中PWM刺激的增殖受影响最小。这种调节活性并非由于毒性，而是由Bb蛋白抗原引起的。增殖降低的程度与Bb的量和淋巴细胞暴露的时间长度均成正比。暴露于Bb的淋巴细胞产生的白细胞介素-2显著减少。淋巴细胞进入细胞周期增殖阶段的过程也被证明受到了阻碍。这些结果证明了伯氏疏螺旋体的免疫抑制机制。宿主免疫反应的强度可能取决于抑制程度，而抑制程度与螺旋体的数量及其在宿主体内存在的时间长度有关。
