CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are not major effectors of mouse hepatitis virus A59-induced demyelinating disease.
We examined murine hepatitis virus strain A59 (MHV-A59)-induced demyelinating disease in C57BL/6 mice which had previously been thymectomized at 25 days of age. Demyelination was observed in 51-96% of spinal cord quadrants examined 30 or 60 days post infection (dpi), indicating that neither an intact thymus nor thymic infection is a prerequisite to demyelination. Depletion of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells at 5, 7 or 10 dpi did not influence the extent of demyelination indicating that neither T cell subset is a major effector of demyelination. However, these findings do not exclude the possibility that T cells are involved in initiating demyelinating disease very early in infection.
Sutherland
R M
RM
Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19104-6076, USA.
Chua
M M
MM
Lavi
E
E
Weiss
S R
SR
Paterson
Y
Y
D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D003711:Demyelinating Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D006517:Murine hepatitis virus / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology; D013934:Thymectomy