Table 3.
Distribution of Borrelia persica and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto spirochetes in tissues of immunodeficient NOD-SCID mice on day 49/50
| Inoculuma | n | Spirochetes in tissue samples detected by culture/qPCR (organisms/mg) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ear | Skin | Joint | Spleen | Bladder | Heart | Brain | ||
| Intradermal | ||||||||
| B. persica (1.0 × 105) | #/0 | #/17 | #/199 | +/873 | +/74,518 | +/14,017 | +/3702 | |
| #/0 | #/47,690 | #/117 | #/19 | #/1743 | #/46,102 | #/10,721 | ||
| #/0 | #/11,529 | +/262 | −/3381 | +/83,700 | +/23,582 | +/11,929 | ||
| #/0 | #/1171 | #/574 | +/1050 | +/26,254 | #/28,797 | +/2639 | ||
| #/0 | #/311 | #/24 | #/144 | #/131,872 | #/6168 | #/1896 | ||
| Positive mice | 3/5 | 0/0 | 0/5 | 1/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 |
| Intradermal | ||||||||
| B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (1.0 × 106) | #/48 | #/41,467 | +/20,395 | +/22 | +/266,594 | +/360 | +/11 | |
| #/522 | #/18,795 | +/37,393 | +/537 | +/217,600 | #/333 | +/12 | ||
| #/3082 | #/16,655 | #/2113 | #/14 | +/2,110,835 | +/357 | +/15 | ||
| #/10,372 | #/18,435 | +/40,571 | #/3 | +/1,141,583 | +/1122 | +/47 | ||
| #/4,987 | #/15,288 | +/17,693 | +/992 | +/384,204 | +/2057 | +/12 | ||
| Positive mice | 5/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 |
aCulture-derived borreliae
Key: #, contaminated culture; +, positive, with motile spirochetes in culture; −, negative, no spirochetes in culture