The effects of experimental infection with bovine diarrhoea virus (BVDV) on lymphocyte subpopulations in the peripheral blood of pigs.
The aim of the study was to analyse the dynamics of selected lymphocytes subpopulations in peripheral blood of pigs infected with BVDV, using flow cytometric method. The examinations were performed on eighteen healthy, pestivirus-free pigs divided into 3 groups. Pigs in the group 1 were intranasally infected with two virulent reference strains of BVDV: NADL2 and NADL8. Pigs of group 2 were included into experimentally infected ones. Group 3 consisted of control pigs free from infection. The percentage of CD2+ lymphocytes was gradually decreasing during the experiment. Finally a decrease by 20% was noted in group 2 and by 9% in group 1. A slight decrease of CD4+ cells and more significant decrease of CD8+ subpopulation were observed. The CD4:CD8 ratio changed from approximately 3:5 to 1:1 in pigs of group 2, and from 1:2 to 1:3 in pigs of group 1. There were only small fluctuations regarding TcR(gamma)delta+ cells. The level of these lymphocytes increased during first hours post infection and then decreased to the initial value. Obtained results may indicate that infection with species-unspecific pestiviruses causes similar, but less significant, changes within lymphocyte subpopulations than infection with species-specific pestiviruses.
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001908:Diarrhea Viruses, Bovine Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000662:veterinary; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000662:veterinary; D018182:Pestivirus Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000821:virology*