title: Dynamics of CD8+ T cell responses during acute and chronic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus infection.
abstract: Infection of mice with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is frequently used to study the underlying principles of viral infections and immune responses. We fit a mathematical model to recently published data characterizing Ag-specific CD8+ T cell responses during acute (Armstrong) and chronic (clone 13) LCMV infection. This allows us to analyze the differences in the dynamics of CD8+ T cell responses against different types of LCMV infections. For the four CD8+ T cell responses studied, we find that, compared with the responses against acute infection, responses against chronic infection are generally characterized by an earlier peak and a faster contraction phase thereafter. Furthermore, the model allows us to give a new interpretation of the effect of thymectomy on the dynamics of CD8+ T cell responses during chronic LCMV infection: a smaller number of naive precursor cells is sufficient to account for the observed differences in the responses in thymectomized mice. Finally, we compare data characterizing LCMV-specific CD8+ T cell responses from different laboratories. Although the data were derived from the same experimental model, we find quantitative differences that can be solved by introducing a scaling factor. Also, we find kinetic differences that are at least partly due to the infrequent measurements of CD8+ T cells in the different laboratories.
authors: Theoretical Biology, Utrecht University, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. c.l.althaus@uu.nl
authors: Christian L
authors: CL
authors: Althaus
authors: Vitaly V
authors: VV
authors: Ganusov
authors: Rob J
authors: RJ
authors: De Boer
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000818:Animals; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D008216:Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis / Q000276:immunology*; D008217:Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D008954:Models, Biological; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology