Infection of dendritic cells by the Maedi-Visna lentivirus.
The early stages of lentivirus infection of dendritic cells have been studied in an in vivo model. Maedi-visna virus (MVV) is a natural pathogen of sheep with a tropism for macrophages, but the infection of dendritic cells has not been proven, largely because of the difficulties of definitively distinguishing the two cell types. Afferent lymphatic dendritic cells from sheep have been phenotypically characterized and separated from macrophages. Dendritic cells purified from experimentally infected sheep have been demonstrated not only to carry infectious MVV but also to be hosts of the virus themselves. The results of the in vivo infection experiments are supported by infections of purified afferent lymph dendritic cells in vitro, in which late reverse transcriptase products are demonstrated by PCR. The significance of the infection of afferent lymph dendritic cells is discussed in relation to the initial spread of lentivirus infection and the requirement for CD4 T cells.
Ryan
S
S
Centre for Veterinary Science, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 OES, United Kingdom. srr20@cam.ac.uk
Tiley
L
L
McConnell
I
I
Blacklaws
B
B
D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000821:virology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008196:Lymph / Q000166:cytology / Q000821:virology; D008264:Macrophages / Q000821:virology; D009000:Monocytes / Q000502:physiology; D011021:Pneumonia, Progressive Interstitial, of Sheep / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012756:Sheep; D014790:Visna-maedi virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*