title: Delayed type-hypersensitivity response of inbred strains of Syrian golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) to lethal or non-lethal lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infections.
abstract: In adult Syrian golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus), intraperitoneal or footpad inoculation of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) strains, WE or Armstrong (ARM), caused systemic infection and induced serum LCMV-antibody. Hamster and virus strain-dependent lethal disease also occurred. With WE, MHA and PD4 inbred hamsters failed to eliminate infection and died of wasting disease. LSH and CB inbred hamsters resisted lethal WE-disease and cleared infection. LVG hamsters and inbred LHC hamsters were intermediate in WE-susceptibility; some died of wasting, while others survived with little illness. Resistance to lethal WE-disease directly correlated with a delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response to live-virus footpad inoculation. In WE-resistant LSH and CB hamsters, DTH-responses were induced by intraplantar WE-inoculation; footpad edema began by 5 days, reached maximum thickness by 7 to 9 days, and subsided thereafter. In the other hamster strains, DTH to WE could not be elicited. Unlike WE, ARM was hamster-avirulent; infections were self-limited and did not induce DTH. All survivors of primary LCMV (WE or ARM)-infection resisted secondary WE-challenge, and did not develop DTH to LCMV. Immunosuppressive treatments, abrogating DTH and antibody responses to LCMV, rendered all hamsters susceptible to lethal WE-infection. Hamster DTH most likely mediated resistance to virulent LCMV-infection.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Army Medical Research Institute in Infectious Diseases, Disease Assessment Division, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland 21701-5011.
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Genovesi
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000096:biosynthesis; D006224:Cricetinae; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005260:Female; D006968:Hypersensitivity, Delayed; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D008216:Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D008217:Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008647:Mesocricetus; D015164:Vaccines, Inactivated
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D015164:Vaccines, Inactivated