Lymphoadenopathy during Lyme Borreliosis Is Caused by Spirochete Migration-Induced Specific B Cell Activation
Figure 5
Strong induction of B. burgdorferi-specific antibodies following infection.
(A) Indicated recombinant B. burgdorferi antigens and lysate were tested as coating reagents for ELISPOT to enumerate B. burgdoferi-specific antibody-secreting cells (AFC) in the inguinal lymph nodes of C57BL/6 mice infected for 14 days with host-adapted B. burgdorferi. Shown are mean numbers of antibody-secreting cells (AFC) ± SD from 5 mice. (B) A pool of recombinant proteins (DbpA, OspC, Arp and BmpA) was used to determine the frequencies of B. burgdorferi-specific antibody-secreting cells (black bars) by ELISPOT in C57BL/6 mice at indicated times after infection. Grey bars indicate the total number of IgG-AFC per lymph node. For each timepoint two infected mice and two sham-infected control mice were analyzed. Shown are the mean numbers B. burgdorferi-specific antibody-secreting cells ± SD assessed for the individual mice from which cell spots seen in sham-infected mice were subtracted. SD was calculated from titration curves of 3 replicates for each of the two mice analyzed. (C) Shown are the mean frequencies ± SD of B. burgdorferi-specific antibody-secreting cells expressing the indicated Ig-isoytypes or total Ig (black) on days 8 and 14 after infection. Data are from 4 mice per group and timepoint.