Cardiac myocytes of hearts from patients with end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy do not contain Borrelia burgdorferi DNA

Objective To determine if end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is associated with the presence of Lyme disease causing spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi in the myocardium, we used nested polymerase chain reaction to detect B burgdorferi DNA in myocardial samples from explanted hearts of patients wit...

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Published in:The American heart journal 1999-08, Vol.138 (2), p.269-272
Main Authors: Suedkamp, Michael, Lissel, Christoph, Eiffert, Helmut, Flesch, Markus, Boehm, Michael, Mehlhorn, Uwe, Thomssen, Reiner, de Vivie, Ernst Rainer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Antibodies, Bacterial
Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins - isolation & purification
Biological and medical sciences
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - genetics
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - isolation & purification
Cardiology. Vascular system
Cardiomyopathy, Dilated - microbiology
DNA, Bacterial - analysis
Female
Heart
Heart - microbiology
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Myocarditis. Cardiomyopathies
Myocardium - cytology
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Recombinant Proteins
Retrospective Studies
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Summary:Objective To determine if end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is associated with the presence of Lyme disease causing spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi in the myocardium, we used nested polymerase chain reaction to detect B burgdorferi DNA in myocardial samples from explanted hearts of patients with end-stage DCM. Patients originated from endemic areas for Lyme disease (Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Germany). Methods and Results This was a retrospective study. Polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the specific B burgdorferi recombinant outer surface protein A (OspA) gene in myocardial tissue from 68 patients with end-stage DCM who had undergone heart transplantation. The clinical history of Lyme disease, the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi OspA, and antibodies against OspA in myocardial tissue and serum were investigated. B burgdorferi DNA was not detected in any of the 68 human hearts. Immunoglobulin G antibodies against specific B burgdorferi antigens were observed in 3 (12.5%) of 24 patients. In contrast, 4 hearts from rats experimentally infected with B burgdorferi were all positive for OspA DNA as measured by polymerase chain reaction. Conclusion Our data show that cardiac myocytes of hearts obtained from subjects with end-stage DCM did not contain B burgdorferi DNA as investigated by polymerase chain reaction. However, B burgdorferi shows a high affinity for myocardial tissue as shown by the animal studies, indicating that myocardial infections are nevertheless possible. (Am Heart J 1999;138:269-72.)
ISSN:0002-8703
1097-6744
DOI:10.1016/S0002-8703(99)70111-0