A guinea pig model for Lyme disease.
We report that outbred Hartley guinea pigs are susceptible to Borrelia burgdorferi. We recovered spirochetes from 57 of 60 (95%) guinea pigs inoculated when < or = 3 months of age. In contrast, animals inoculated when > or = 6 months of age were resistant to infection as defined by recovery of organisms at > or = 4 weeks postinoculation. Infection was widely disseminated: B. burgdorferi was recovered from 83% of bladders, 64% of knee joints, 57% of hearts, 48% of spleens, and 38% of spinal cords examined within 4 weeks of inoculation. Histopathologic changes were common in the heart (88%) (preferential involvement of perineural tissues near the annulus fibrosus) and bladder (76%) and were also noted in a minority of spinal cords (13%) and knee joints (9%). Western immunoblots demonstrated an immunoglobulin G response to B. burgdorferi, particularly to the 24-, 31- (OspA), 39-, and 41-kDa (flagellin) antigens. Infection was cleared from most tissues with the passage of time; spirochetes were recovered from 63% of tissues removed from guinea pigs at < or = 4 weeks after inoculation but from only 32% at > or = 8 weeks postinoculation (P < 0.001). An exception was the failure to clear spirochetes from infected knees, 90% of which were culture positive even when evaluated at > or = 8 weeks postinoculation. The guinea pig provides a new model useful for studying host-spirochete interactions in Lyme disease.
Sonnesyn
S W
SW
Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis 55455.
Manivel
J C
JC
Johnson
R C
RC
Goodman
J L
JL
D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D015748:Borrelia burgdorferi Group / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005260:Female; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial