FIGURE 8.

Myostatin inhibition suppresses the development of Lyme arthritis in Bbaa1 congenic mice. ISRCL4 and ISRCL3 mice were infected with 2 × 10⁴ B. burgdorferi and treated with a myostatin inhibitor as described in Materials and Methods (n = 3 to 4 mice per group). Arthritis was assessed 4 wk post infection, and shown for (A) ankle swelling relative to infected PBS treated animals for each genotype and (B) histopathological lesion scores of infected congenic lines. (C) Host defense was assessed by anti-B. burgdorferi IgG in the serum and qRT-PCR quantification of B. burgdorferi in ear tissue. Significance determined by Student’s t test for ankle swelling and Mann-Whitney U test for overall lesion. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.