Figure 7.
Spirochete levels in murine bladder and heart biopsies in the 4th week after nymphal feeding. (A) Infection of naïve mice with B. afzelii CB43 transmitted from naturally infected nymphs pre-injected with different group combinations of t-tep dsRNAs or gfp dsRNA as a control. (B) Infection of naïve mice with B. afzelii CB43 from naturally infected nymphs pre-injected with LtxB or PBS as a control. For each individual group (t-teps, gfp, LtxB, or PBS), five mice were infested with 10 nymphs. The number of Borrelia in the target tissues (bladder and heart) was determined by qPCR 4 weeks after infestation. The number of Borrelia was normalized to 105 mouse genomes. (A) Data were analyzed by non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test; (B) data were analyzed by unpaired t-test.