Clocking the Lyme spirochete.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 18286190.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0001633 and PMC identifier PMC264710.
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Abstract
In order to clear the body of infecting spirochetes, phagocytic cells must be able to get hold of them. In real-time phase-contrast videomicroscopy we were able to measure the speed of Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the Lyme spirochete, moving back and forth across a platelet to which it was tethered. Its mean crossing speed was 1,636 microm/min (N = 28), maximum, 2800 microm/min (N = 3). This is the fastest speed recorded for a spirochete, and upward of two orders of magnitude above the speed of a human neutrophil, the fastest cell in the body. This alacrity and its interpretation, in an organism with bidirectional motor capacity, may well contribute to difficulties in spirochete clearance by the host.