Figure 6. BB0347 is immunogenic in mice.
A) Mice were inoculated with B. burgdorferi MI-16 and bleeds were collected before and 8 weeks after the injection of bacteria. Sera from four mice in each category were pooled for Western blotting against purified rBB0347. Lane 1) mouse pre-immune serum, Lane 2) affinity-purified αBB0347, Lane 3) mouse 8-week post infection serum. Bands of the appropriate size were observed in the positive control and infected mouse serum-treated lanes, but not the pre-immune serum treated lane. B) Antibody titers from the pooled sera were determined by ELISA. Values graphed are post-infected serum blanked for pre-infected. Antibodies responded to rBB0347 and OspC in the post-infected sera more strongly than those in the pre-infected sera up to a dilution of 1×10−4. Error bars indicate ±SEM, and data presented are indicative of three independent experiments with equivalent results.