Frequent occurrence of apoptosis is not associated with pathogenic infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) during persistent infection.
Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV), a member of the genus Aquabirnavirus and family Birnaviridae, is an unenveloped icosahedral virus with two segments of double-stranded RNA. IPNV causes acute infection in salmonid fry and fingerlings with high mortality. However, this mortality is low as the age increases and survivors become IPNV-carrier fish. In this study, IPNV persistent infection was established in rainbow trout with no clinical signs or mortality. TUNEL staining and immunohistochemistry showed that IPNV antigen-positive cells did not have an apoptotic nucleus in almost all tissue sections and leucocyte smears, indicating that apoptosis was not induced in IPNV antigen-positive cells. The IPNV genome detected by in situ RT-PCR was more frequent than detection of the IPNV antigen by immunohistochemistry in the kidney, spleen, and liver. This result implies that the successive replication would not occur in many IPNV-infected cells. Further, apoptotic cells were predominant in the tissue sections where the signal-positive cells were frequently detected. Therefore, the presence of apoptosis in this study might be associated with host defense mechanisms, which eliminates IPNV-infected cells by the recognition of IPNV genome at the early stage of infection.
Laboratory of Cell Structure and Function, Division of Marine Bioresource Science, Graduate School of Kuroshio Science, Kochi University, Nankoku Kochi 783-8502, Japan.
Masayuki
M
Imajoh
Takeshi
T
Hirayama
Syun-ichirou
S
Oshima
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000276:immunology*; D018175:Birnaviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*; D017931:DNA Primers; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000662:veterinary; D020287:In Situ Nick-End Labeling / Q000662:veterinary; D018061:Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus / Q000235:genetics*; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000166:cytology; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000662:veterinary; D017686:Oncorhynchus mykiss; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D013997:Time Factors
D017931:DNA Primers