This report shows that, after ceftriaxone treatment for 5 days, a portion of B. burgdorferi-infected mice still have live spirochetes in their body, which are activated by anti-TNF-alpha treatment.

During inflammation neutrophils receive multiple signals that are integrated, allowing a single modified response. One mechanism for this discrimination is receptor desensitization, a process whereby ligand-receptor binding is disassociated from cell activation. We examined the effect of heterologous receptor desensitization on neutrophil chemotaxis, calcium mobilization, and arachidonic acid production, using interleukin-8 (IL-8), C5a, and N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP). We observed reciprocal inhibition with respect to chemotaxis. We demonstrated that homologous desensitization, with respect to the mobilization of intracellular calcium stores, lasted approximately 15 min. Heterologous desensitization between the fMLP receptor and the C5a receptor was reciprocal; either stimulant would diminish the cells' response to stimulation by the other for approximately 3-5 min. However, we observed a unidirectional heterologous desensitization of the IL-8 receptor by both the fMLP and the C5a receptor. This unidirectional heterologous desensitization was observed with respect to both calcium mobilization and arachidonic acid production (i.e., prestimulation of the IL-8 receptor had no effect on subsequent stimulation by either fMLP or C5a).

When Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete causing Lyme disease, is transmitted to a human, the complement system is among the first challenges facing the bacterium. Neutrophils are crucial leukocytes in the first line of host defense against bacterial infections. To investigate the role of complement in the Borrelia-induced activation of human neutrophils, oxidative burst, calcium mobilization, and phagocytosis induced by three subspecies of B. burgdorferi were studied. Each subspecies induced all observed neutrophil functions in a complement-dependent manner. Serum-derived factors bound to the surface of B. burgdorferi were found to be essential for the induction of the oxidative burst. The CD11b chain of CR3 was found to participate in the oxidative burst and calcium mobilization induced by B. burgdorferi.

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Experiments were performed to identify the chemoattractant for polymorphonuclear leukocytes that appears in the cerebrospinal fluid of rabbits with experimental pneumococcal meningitis. Meningitis was induced in anesthetized New Zealand white rabbits by injecting 104 cells of stationary-phase Streptococcus pneumoniae type III intracisternally. Before bacteria were injected, cerebrospinal fluid contained neither polymorphonuclear leukocytes nor chemotactic activity. Significant chemotactic activity for rabbit polymorphonuclear leukocytes was detected 12 h after inoculation with bacteria and was maximal after 18 to 20 h. Chemotactic activity appeared in cerebrospinal fluid while concentrations of pneumococci and total protein were increasing but before there was any accumulation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. The chemotactic activity in cerebrospinal fluid was heat stable (56°C for 30 min), eluted from Sephadex G-75 with a profile identical to that of the chemotactic activity in zymosan-activated rabbit serum, and was inhibited by treatment with antibodies to native human C5. In addition, preincubation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes with partially purified rabbit C5a selectively inhibited their subsequent chemotactic responses to cerebrospinal fluid. These data indicate that complement (C5)-derived chemotactic activity appears in cerebrospinal fluid during the course of experimental pneumococcal meningitis in rabbits and suggest that this activity accounts for the accumulation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes observed in this infection.