B. burgdorferi infection in WT, tPA ?/? and PAI-1 ?/? mice.

Note. C57BL/6 WT, tPA and PAI-1 knock-out mice (6�C8 per group) were inoculated with B. burgdorferi strain B31 or sham and sacrificed two weeks later.#Plasminogen activator (PA) activity was measured in citrate plasma using amidolytic assays and expressed as a percentage.##B. burgdorferi numbers were determined by quantitative PCR and expressed as described in Figures 2 and 3.$In addition, an in vitro phagocytosis assay was performed using naive mice (n = 6�C8 per group) as described in Figure 2. Whole blood was incubated with viable CFSE-labeled B. burgdorferi for 60 minutes at 37 or 4��C as a control and phagocytosis was depicted as the phagocytosis index as described in Figure 2.a,cPA activity was significantly lower in tPA knock-out mice compared to WT controls, regardless whether mice were inoculated with B. burgdorferi or sham, pb,dPA activity was significantly higher in PAI-1 knock-out mice compared to WT controls, regardless whether mice were inoculated with B. burgdorferi or sham, pResults represent the mean��SEM. Non-parametric statistical tests were used to analyze the differences between the groups. A p-value