TABLE 1.

Depletion of MZB cells exacerbates arthritis in B. burgdorferi-infected mice

Day of infection	Mouse group	Arthritis prevalence (no. of inflamed joints/ total no. of joints)a	Mean arthritis severity score ± SDb
10	Isotype control	3/10	0.4 ± 0.7
	MZB cell depleted	11/11c	1.6 ± 0.7d
14	Isotype control	12/28	0.5 ± 0.7
	MZB cell depleted	17/23e	1.1 ± 0.9f

^aArthritis prevalence was reported as the number of joints with inflammation over the total number of joints examined in each group.

^bArthritis was scored on a scale of 0 (negative) to 3 (severe) and is reported as the average score of the inflamed joints in each mouse group. Three to seven mice were examined in each group. The data for the arthritis at 14 days is combined from two separate experiments.

^cMZB cell-depleted mice versus control mice, P = 0.001, Fisher's exact test.

^dP = 0.001, two-tailed Student's t test.

^eP = 0.046, Fisher's exact test.

^fP = 0.016, two-tailed Student's t test.