title: Changing patterns of dominance in the CD8+ T cell response during acute and persistent murine gamma-herpesvirus infection.
abstract: The murine gamma-herpesvirus MHV-68 causes an acute, transient pneumonitis, followed by an infectious mononucleosis (IM)-like illness with splenomegaly, widespread latent infection of B lymphocytes and an expansion of Vbeta4+ CD8+ T cells. CD8+ T cells specific for an H-2Db-restricted epitope were prominent during the acute respiratory infection, but their prevalence declined rapidly during the mononucleosis. In contrast, CD8+ T cells specific for an H-2Kb-restricted epitope, apparently expressed by virus-infected B lymphocytes, were most numerous during the mononucleosis illness and were maintained at relatively high frequencies thereafter. The prevalence of all peptide-specific CD8+ T cells decreased during the expansion of the Vbeta4+ CD8+ population, which did not recognize any peptide epitopes identified and was apparent also in an MHC class I-deficient environment. The CD8+ T cell population recognizing productively infected epithelial cells thus differed substantially from that responding during the IM illness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.forename: G T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Belz
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Altman
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Doherty
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D005260:Female; D018142:Gammaherpesvirinae; D006183:H-2 Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL
chemical_list: D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D006183:H-2 Antigens