Transfer of Borrelia burgdorferi s.s. infection via blood transfusion in a murine model.
Without antibiotic treatment, the Lyme-disease-causing bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi can be cultured from the peripheral blood of human patients nearly 6 wk post-tick bite. To determine if Lyme disease spirochetes can be transmitted from a spirochetemic donor mouse to a naive recipient during blood transfusion, blood taken from immunocompetent infected mice was transfused into either immunodeficient (SCID) mice, inbred immunocompetent animals (C3H/HeJ), or outbred mice. Nine of 19 (47.7%) immunodeficient mice, 7 of 15 (46.8%) inbred immunocompetent mice, and 6 of 10 (60.0%) outbred mice became infected with B. burgdorferi after transfusion. Our results indicate that it is possible to acquire B. burgdoferi infection via transfused blood in a mouse model of Lyme borreliosis.
Gabitzsch
Elizabeth S
ES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Bacterial Zoonoses Branch, Foothills Campus, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522, USA.
Piesman
Joseph
J
Dolan
Marc C
MC
Sykes
Christine M
CM
Zeidner
Nordin S
NS
D000818:Animals; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission*; D025065:Borrelia burgdorferi / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D007121:Immunocompetence; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000276:immunology / Q000635:transmission*; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D016513:Mice, SCID; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D065227:Transfusion Reaction