FIG. 6.

Antibodies generated against all seven surface proteins are borreliacidal. Antibodies generated against recombinant forms of all seven surface proteins were used to examine their bactericidal activity. Spirochetes (4 × 10⁶) were seeded into wells of a 96-well flat-bottom microtiter plate containing either 2 units of guinea pig complement alone per well or 2 units of guinea pig complement with a 1:10 dilution of antibody specific for each surface protein. Plates were sealed and incubated at 34°C for 72 h. After incubation, aliquots of each well were examined by dark-field microscopy to quantitate spirochete viability. Graphs show spirochete viability (A) and percent growth inhibition (B). All experiments were performed in triplicate; samples with one asterisk were found to be significantly different from samples with two asterisks (P < 0.01).