Complement opsonization enhances friend virus infection of B cells and thereby amplifies the virus-specific CD8+ T cell response.
B cells are one of the targets of Friend virus (FV) infection, a well-established mouse model often used to study retroviral infections in vivo. Although B cells may be effective in stimulating cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses, studies involving their role in FV infection have mainly focused on neutralizing antibody production. Here we show that polyclonal activation of B cells promotes their infection with FV both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we demonstrate that complement opsonization of Friend murine leukemia virus (F-MuLV) enhances infection of B cells, which correlates with increased potency of B cells to activate FV-specific CD8(+) T cells.
Division of Virology, Innsbruck Medical University, Fritz-Pregl Str. 3, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Custodio
C
Bila
Verena
V
Oberhauser
Christoph G
CG
Ammann
Asim
A
Ejaz
Georg
G
Huber
Simone
S
Schimmer
Ron
R
Messer
Marcela
M
Pekna
Dorothee
D
von Laer
Ulf
U
Dittmer
Kim J
KJ
Hasenkrug
Heribert
H
Stoiber
Zoltán
Z
Bánki
D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000821:virology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003165:Complement System Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D005622:Friend murine leukemia virus / Q000276:immunology* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D051379:Mice
D003165:Complement System Proteins