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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2000, p. 1569-1574, Vol. 38, No. 4
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Borrelia burgdorferi B31 Erp Proteins That Are Dominant Immunoblot Antigens of Animals Infected with Isolate B31 Are Recognized by Only a Subset of Human Lyme Disease Patient Sera

Jennifer C. Miller, Nazira El-Hage, Kelly Babb, and Brian Stevenson*

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky 40536-0084

Received 20 October 1999/Returned for modification 24 December 1999/Accepted 20 January 2000

Sera from animals infected with Borrelia burgdorferi isolates yield intense immunoblot signals from the B31 ErpA/I/N and ErpB/J/O proteins, which have apparent molecular masses of 19 and 60 kDa, respectively. Since B. burgdorferi proteins with those molecular masses are of immunodiagnostic importance, Lyme disease patient sera were used in studies of B31 lysates and recombinant B31 ErpA/I/N and ErpB/J/O proteins. Immunoblot analyses indicated that only a minority of the patients produced antibodies that recognized the tested B31 Erp proteins. Southern blot analyses of Lyme disease spirochetes cultured from 16 of the patients indicated that all these bacteria contain genes related to the B31 erpA/I/N and erpB/J/O genes, although signal strengths indicated only weak similarities in many cases, suggestive of genetic variability of erp genes among these bacteria. These data indicate that Erp proteins are generally not the 19- and 60-kDa antigens observed on serodiagnostic immunoblots.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, MS 415 Chandler Medical Center, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY 40536-0084. Phone: (606) 257-9358. Fax: (606) 257-8994. E-mail: bstev0{at}pop.uky.edu.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2000, p. 1569-1574, Vol. 38, No. 4
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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