Borrelia afzelii and immune response of BALB/c mice

Abstract

The aim of our study was to fnd a possible existence of various vaccination effects on the formation of antibodies against three individual Borrelia afzelii strains (dead cell suspension) isolated from a vector, potential vector and host of this spirochaete, which makes this experiment unique in the research of Lyme disease causative agents. Three strains of Borrelia afzelii were isolated from three different sources: Ixodes ricinus tick (BRZ 9), Culex (Culex) pipiens molestus mosquito (BRZ 14) and Apodemus favicollis wild rodent (BRZ 21). Vaccination induced formation of IgM and IgG in the BALB/c mice (males) and these antibodies were detected in the serum by the Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA). IgM antibodies were signifcantly increased in the mice immunized with BRZ 21 in the third sera testing (P < 0.001) and IgG antibodies in the mice immunized with the BRZ 9 and BRZ 21 strains (P < 0.01) during the whole three-sample collection. Signifcant differences were found in antibody concentration by comparison of groups immunized with BRZ 9/BRZ 21 and BRZ 14 (P < 0.001), probably caused by the amount of antigen of BRZ 14 strain. Such fnding implies that the immune system of the host (rodent), attacked by the same genospecies of pathogenic borreliae (B. afzelii) coming from different sources reacts with the same intensity. This is the frst study of reaction of the same borrelian antigen mixture coming from various sources.