Murine retrovirus-induced spongiform encephalopathy: productive infection of microglia and cerebellar neurons in accelerated CNS disease.
We have examined the pathological lesions and sites of infection in mice inoculated with a highly neurovirulent recombinant wild mouse ecotropic retrovirus (FrCasE). The spongiform lesions appeared initially as swollen postsynaptic neuronal processes, progressing to swelling in neuronal cell bodies, all in the absence of detectable gliosis. Infection of neurons in regions of vacuolation was not detected. However, high level infection of cerebellar granule neurons was observed in the absence of cytopathology, wherein viral protein was found associated with both axons and dendrites. Infection of ramified and amoeboid microglial cells was associated with cytopathology in the brain stem, and endothelial cell-pericyte infection was found throughout the CNS. No evidence of defective retroviral expression was observed. These results are consistent with an indirect mechanism of retrovirus-induced neuropathology.
Lynch
W P
WP
Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana 59840.
Czub
S
S
McAtee
F J
FJ
Hayes
S F
SF
Portis
J L
JL
D000818:Animals; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000382:microbiology; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D002525:Cerebellar Cortex / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051379:Mice; D009474:Neurons / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000472:pathogenicity; D016865:Reassortant Viruses / Q000472:pathogenicity; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D014779:Virus Replication
D015686:Gene Products, env