TABLE 1.
B. burgdorferi-infected MyD88−/− mice develop disease and are persistently spirochetemic
| No. of days after infectione | Arthritis severitya
|
No. of mice with active carditis/totalb
|
No. of mice with spirochetes in blood cultures/totalc
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WT | MyD88−/− | WT | MyD88−/− | WT | MyD88−/− | |
| 14 | 0 ± 0 | 0.2 ± 0.1 | 4/5 | 3/5 | 1/5 | 4/5 |
| 17 | 0 ± 0 | 0.3 ± 0.1 | 0/4 | 5/5d | 1/4 | 5/5 |
| 28 | 1.6 ± 0.2 | 1.6 ± 0.3 | 0/5 | 1/5 | 0/5 | 4/5 |
| 45 | 1.2 ± 0.3 | 0.7 ± 0.3 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 4/5 |
Arthritis severity is based on the degree of leukocyte infiltration on a scale of 0 to 3. The data represent the means of scores ± standard errors of the means for the most severely affected joint. There was no statistical difference in arthritis severity among mouse groups at any time point.
Carditis is reported as the number of mice with acute inflammation at the base of the heart. With the exception of the 17-day time point there was no statistical difference in the presence of carditis among mouse groups.
The presence of spirochetes in the blood was determined by dark-field microscopy after 14 days of culture in BSK II medium at 33°C.
Statistically significant compared to WT (P = 0.0079 by Fisher's exact test).
The 14-day and 45-day results are from a single experiment, whereas the 17-day and 28-day results are from two separate experiments.