Tuning into immunological dissonance: an experimental model for infectious mononucleosis
✍ Scribed by Peter C Doherty; Ralph A Tripp; Anne-Marie Hamilton-Easton; Rhonda D Cardin; David L Woodland; Marcia A Blackman
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 575 KB
- Volume
- 9
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0952-7915
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Virus infections cause a much more profound perturbation of the lymphoid tissue than can be accounted for by the exigencies of the antigen-specific response. The extent of this 'immunological dissonance' is seen most dramatically in mice infected with a persistent 7-herpesvirus, MHV-6B. A profile of massive, continuing proliferation Of both T and 13 cells in the lymph nodes and spleen leads to a dramatic increase in the prevalence of a CD62L I°w CD8 + T cell subset in the blood, a pattern first detected two to three weeks after intranasal exposure to the inducing virus. This syndrome, which seems identical to human infectious mononucleosis (IM), persists for a further month or more. Part of the IM-like phase of MHV-68 infection reflects the selective expansion of Vl34 + CD8 + T cells, with the Vl34 effect being apparent for several different MHC class I H-2 types but riot in mice that are deficient in MHC class II glycoprotein expression. Depleting CD4 + T helper cells in MHV-68-infected mice leads to the decreased proliferation of the CD8 + T cells in the spleen and fewer CD62L low CDB+ T lymphocytes than would be expected in peripheral blood, but fails to diminish the prominence of the V413 + CD8 + population. The results so far of this unique experimental mouse model of IM suggest that both cytokine-mediated effects and a viral superantigen are operating to promote the dramatic expansion and persistence of activated CD8 + T cells in the vascular compartment.