Secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor influences periarticular joint inflammation in Borrelia burgdorferi-infected mice.

Lyme disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common tick-borne infection in the United States. Arthritis is a major clinical manifestation of infection, and synovial tissue damage has been attributed to the excessive pro-inflammatory responses. The secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) promotes tissue repair and exerts anti-inflammatory effects. The role of SLPI in the development of Lyme arthritis in C57BL/6 mice, which can be infected with B. burgdorferi but only develop mild joint inflammation, was therefore examined. Slpi-deficient C57BL/6 mice challenged with B. burgdorferi had a higher infection load in the tibiotarsal joints and marked periarticular swelling compared to infected wild-type control mice. The ankle joint tissues of B. burgdorferi-infected Slpi-deficient mice contained significantly higher percentages of infiltrating neutrophils and macrophages. B. burgdorferi-infected Slpi-deficient mice also exhibited elevated serum levels of IL-6, neutrophil elastase, and MMP-8. Moreover, using a recently developed BASEHIT (BActerial Selection to Elucidate Host-microbe Interactions in high Throughput) library, we found that SLPI directly interacts with B. burgdorferi. These data demonstrate the importance of SLPI in suppressing periarticular joint inflammation in Lyme disease.