Table 4.
Distribution of Borrelia persica spirochetes in tissues of immunocompetent C3H/HeOuJ mice on day 49/50
| Inoculuma | n | Spirochetes in tissue samples by culture/qPCR (organisms/mg) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ear | Skin | Joint | Spleen | Bladder | Heart | Brain | ||
| Intradermal | ||||||||
| B. persica (7.2 × 105) | #/0 | #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/39 | |
| #/0 | #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/31 | ||
| #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/89 | ||
| #/0 | #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/59 | ||
| #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/136 | ||
| Positive mice | 5/5 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 5/5 |
| Intravenous | ||||||||
| B. persica (7.2 × 105) | #/0 | #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/30 | |
| #/0 | #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/34 | ||
| −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/75 | ||
| #/0 | #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/216 | ||
| #/0 | #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/63 | ||
| #/0 | #/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | −/0 | +/74 | ||
| Positive mice | 6/6 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 6/6 |
aHost-adapted borreliae
Key: #, contaminated culture; +, positive, with motile spirochetes in culture; −, negative, no spirochetes in culture