The role of MHC class I and class II molecules in susceptibility to Lyme disease in inbred B10 H-2 congenic and recombinant mice

We have further developed the mouse model of Lyme disease using B10 H-2 congenic and recombinant strains. The influence of MHC class I and class II genes of the mouse H-2 complex on the susceptibility and/or resistance to Lyme disease was studied. We report that B10 strains congenic to the haplotypes, H-2^k, H-2^d, H-2^f, H-2^q, and H-2^b are highly susceptible to Lyme disease as they develop high antibody titers and severe disease over mice of other haplotypes used in this study. By using recombinant strains we demonstrate that this susceptibility is genetically based and specifically involves the K and D regions (MHC class I genes) and I-A and I-E regions (MHC class II genes) of the H-2 complex.