Natural killer cell counts are not different between patients with post-Lyme disease syndrome and controls.

It has been reported that patients with "chronic Lyme disease" have a decreased number of natural killer cells, as defined by the CD57 marker. We performed immunophenotyping in 9 individuals with post-Lyme disease syndrome, 12 who recovered from Lyme disease, and 9 healthy volunteers. The number of natural killer cells was not significantly different between the groups.