Hamster and Murine Models of Severe Destructive Lyme Arthritis

Table 2

Hamster models important for evaluation of protective immunity versus endpoint of severe destructive Lyme arthritis.

Model	B. burgdorferi strains	Timing of immunogen delivery	Endpoint	Comments	Reference(s)
Irradiated hamster (challenge)	Numerous^a	Following 550 rads gamma radiation	SDLA^b	Adoptive transfer (protection) experiments	[18, 21, 22]
Irradiated hamster (vaccination/challenge)	Numerous^a	Challenge prior to development of significant borreliacidal antibody titer (homologous challenge)^c; timing of heterologous strain challenge can vary	SDLA	Assessment of vaccine candidates	[24]
Immunocompetent hamster (vaccination/challenge)	Numerous^d	Challenge prior to development of significant borreliacidal antibody titer (homologous challenge)^c; timing of heterologous strain challenge can vary	SDLA	Characterizing duration of protective immunity of vaccine candidates; Assessing Lyme borreliosis vaccine candidates for adverse events	[20, 25]; [29, 35]

^aReferenced study(ies) focused on B. burgdorferi sensu stricto isolate 297.
^bSevere destructive Lyme arthritis.
^cAt least six seroprotective groups have been characterized ([27–29]).
^dReferenced study(ies) focused on B. bissettii vaccination with subsequent B. burgdorferi sensu stricto isolate 297 challenge.