Toll-like receptors 1 and 2 heterodimers alter Borrelia burgdorferi gene expression in mice and ticks.

Toll-like receptors mediate induction of hepcidin in mice infected with Borrelia burgdorferi.

Hepcidin is the major regulator of systemic iron homeostasis in mammals. Hepcidin is produced mainly by the liver and is increased by inflammation, leading to hypoferremia. We measured serum levels of bioactive hepcidin and its effects on serum iron levels in mice infected with Borrelia burgdorferi. Bioactive hepcidin was elevated in the serum of mice resulting in hypoferremia. Infected mice pr...

Expression and Purification of Recombinant Outer Surface Protein D of Borrelia burgdorferi

To carry out the immunological experiments on the serum of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients, based on a correlation between Borrelia burgdorferi infection and contracting MS autoimmune disease the outer surface protein D (OspD) of the bacterium was expressed and purified. A clone containing the OspD gene in pET11a expression vector under the control of T7 promoter was transformed to the bacteri...

Temporal pattern of Borrelia burgdorferi p21 expression in ticks and the mammalian host.

The temporal synthesis of the P21 protein of Borrelia burgdorferi and the development of the humoral response to this antigen was assessed in infected mice. p21 is a member of the ospE-F gene family and its protein, P21, has been shown to be expressed by B. burgdorferi within infected mice but not by spirochetes cultured in vitro. P21 was not detected on B. burgdorferi in unfed or engorged Ixod...

Role of outer surface protein D in the Borrelia burgdorferi life cycle.

Borrelia burgdorferi preferentially induces selected genes in mice or ticks, and studies suggest that ospD is down-regulated in response to host-specific signals. We now directly show that ospD expression is generally elevated within Ixodes scapularis compared with mice. We then assessed the importance of OspD throughout the spirochete life cycle by generating OspD-deficient B. burgdorferi and ...

Gene Expression Quantification of Toll like Receptors 2, 4 and Co-molecules in Human Glioblastoma Cell Line (U87-MG): Toward a New In vitro Model of Inflammation