title: Relationship between apoptosis and thymocyte depletion in rabies-infected mice.
abstract: The apoptosis of thymocytes from rabies-infected mice was investigated in a kinetic study covering the entire course of the infection. For this study, BALB/c mice (6-7-week old females) were inoculated intracerebrally with 100 LD50 of Challenge Virus Strain, a fixed rabies virus strain, and three animals were sacrificed per time point to remove thymuses. When thymocytes were fixed, stained with propidium iodide and analyzed by flow cytometry, a distinct subpopulation of cells was observed below the G0/G1 region, denoted as the A0 region. Cells in this region presented reduced fluorescence, and nuclear DNA fragmentation. The accumulation of cells in the A0 region, after infection, progressively increased, reaching 12% for unfractionated thymocytes, 62% for thymocytes from the 60% Percoll interface and 32% for thymocytes recovered at the 100% Percoll interface. This finding, observed only in thymocytes from infected mice, demonstrates a clear modification of chromatin condensation in these cells, suggesting the occurrence of an apoptotic process during rabies infection.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Imunologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marcovistz
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Bertho
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Matos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D008212:Lymphocyte Depletion; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C / Q000276:immunology*; D011419:Propidium / Q000494:pharmacology; D011818:Rabies / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011419:Propidium