T cell responses to polypeptide fractions of Borrelia burgdorferi in patients with lyme arthritis

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Abstract
Among 6 patients with prolonged episodes of Lyme arthritis, the mean response of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) to all Borrelia burgdorferi antigens (stimulation index [SI] 46) was greater than that among 5 patients with brief attacks of Lyme arthritis (SI 13; P < 0.1), as well as that among 7 control patients with rheumatoid arthritis and among 6 normal control subjects (in both instances SI 3; P < 0.05). In individual patients with brief episodes of Lyme arthritis, PBL had similar low levels of reactivity with the 20‐kd, 31‐kd, 34‐kd, 41‐kd, 55/58‐kd, and 66‐kd spirochetal polypeptides. In individual patients with prolonged arthritis, PBL usually had similar marked responsiveness to the 34‐kd, 41‐kd, 55/58‐kd, and 66‐kd polypeptides, but they had greater reactivity with the 34‐kd outer surface protein B than with the 31‐kd outer surface protein A (P < 0.05). In the 2 patients tested, paired samples of synovial fluid lymphocytes and PBL had a similar pattern of reactivity, but the response was 2–100‐fold greater in synovial fluid lymphocytes. We conclude that patients with prolonged Lyme arthritis have T cell responses to multiple spirochetal polypeptides.