de Silva A M, Fikrig E, Hodzic E, Kantor F S, Telford S R, Barthold S W
Center for Comparative Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis 95616, USA.
J Infect Dis. 1998 Feb;177(2):395-400. doi: 10.1086/514200.
Immune sera from mice infected with the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, have strong biologic activity against spirochetes cultured in vitro. Recent studies with rodents and ticks infected with B. burgdorferi indicate that spirochetes undergo major changes in protein expression as they adapt to the diverse environments encountered by a vectorborne pathogen. The purpose of this study was to explore the susceptibility of three different adaptive forms of B. burgdorferi (in vitro cultured, host-derived, and tickborne) to immune sera. Passive transfer of immune sera protected mice when they were challenged with spirochetes cultured in vitro. Immune sera did not protect mice from tickborne spirochetes or spirochetes derived from infected mice. These results indicate that spirochetes that have adapted within either the feeding tick or host are relatively invulnerable to the protective effects of immune sera, unlike spirochetes grown in vitro, which are highly susceptible.
感染莱姆病螺旋体（伯氏疏螺旋体）的小鼠产生的免疫血清，对体外培养的螺旋体具有很强的生物活性。近期针对感染伯氏疏螺旋体的啮齿动物和蜱虫的研究表明，螺旋体在适应媒介传播病原体所遇到的多样环境时，其蛋白质表达会发生重大变化。本研究的目的是探究伯氏疏螺旋体三种不同适应形式（体外培养型、宿主源型和蜱传型）对免疫血清的敏感性。当用体外培养的螺旋体攻击小鼠时，免疫血清的被动转移可保护小鼠。免疫血清不能保护小鼠免受蜱传螺旋体或来自感染小鼠的螺旋体的侵害。这些结果表明，与高度敏感的体外培养螺旋体不同，在进食蜱或宿主体内适应的螺旋体相对不易受到免疫血清保护作用的影响。
