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Interaction of Borrelia burgdorferi with Peripheral Blood Fibrocytes, Antigen-Presenting Cells with the Potential for Connective Tissue Targeting

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Abstract

Background

Borrelia Burgdorferi has a predilection for collagenous tissue and can interact with fibronectin and cellular collagens. While the molecular mechanisms of how B. burgdorferi targets connective tissues and causes arthritis are not understood, the spirochetes can bind to a number of different cell types, including fibroblasts. A novel circulating fibroblast-like cell called the peripheral blood fibrocyte has recently been described. Fibrocytes express collagen types I and III as well as fibronectin. Besides playing a role in wound healing, fibrocytes have the potential to target to connective tissue and the functional capacity to recruit, activate, and present antigen to CD4+ T cells.

Materials and Methods

Rhesus monkey fibrocytes were isolated and characterized by flow cytometry. B. burgdorferi were incubated with human or monkey fibrocyte cultures in vitro and the cellular interactions analyzed by light and electron microscopy. The two strains of B. burgdorferi studied included JD1, which is highly pathogenic for monkeys, and M297, which lacks the cell surface OspA and OspB proteins.

Results

In this study, we demonstrate that B. burgdorferi binds to both human and monkey (rhesus) fibrocytes in vitro. This process does not require OspA or OspB. In addition, the spirochetes are not phagocytosed but are taken into deep recesses of the cell membrane, a process that may protect them from the immune system.

Conclusions

This interaction between B. burgdorferi and peripheral blood fibrocytes provides a potential explanation for the targeting of spirochetes to joint connective tissue and may contribute to the inflammatory process in Lyme arthritis.

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Acknowledgments

We especially acknowledge the expert technical help provided by Calvin Lancloe, Richard Kennedy, and Christina Givens (Tulane Regional Primate Research Center). We are also thankful to both Dr. Mark Wiser (Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine) and Dr. Peter Didier (Tulane Regional Primate Research Center) for their most helpful discussions. This work was presented in part at the Experimental Biology ′97 Meetings held in New Orleans, LA, April 6–9, 1997 (33). Dennis J. Grab and H.-Norbert Lanners contributed equally to this work. Financial support for this work was provided in part by grants from the CDC (U50/CCU606604-05) and from the NCRR (P51RRAG00164-35).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tulane Regional Primate Research Center, Covington, Louisiana, USA

    Dennis J. Grab, H.-Norbert Lanners & Louis N. Martin

  2. Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

    Dennis J. Grab

  3. The Picower Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York, USA

    Jason Chesney, Chunbo Cai & Richard Bucala

  4. Renal Division, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Washington University Medical School, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Huston D. Adkisson

  5. Department of Applied Biological Sciences, Saga University, Saga, 840-8502, Japan

    Dennis J. Grab

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  1. Dennis J. Grab
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  2. H.-Norbert Lanners
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  3. Louis N. Martin
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  4. Jason Chesney
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  6. Huston D. Adkisson
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  7. Richard Bucala
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Correspondence to Dennis J. Grab.

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Communicated by R. Bucala

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Grab, D.J., Lanners, HN., Martin, L.N. et al. Interaction of Borrelia burgdorferi with Peripheral Blood Fibrocytes, Antigen-Presenting Cells with the Potential for Connective Tissue Targeting. Mol Med 5, 46–54 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03402138

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