title: Replication characteristics of equine herpesvirus 1 and equine herpesvirus 3: comparative analysis using ex vivo tissue cultures.
abstract: Replication kinetics and invasion characteristics of equine herpesvirus-1 and -3 (EHV-1/-3) in nasal and vaginal mucosae were compared using explants. The explants were cultured during 96 h with little change in viability. The tissues were inoculated with EHV-1 03P37 (neuropathogenic), 97P70 (abortigenic) and EHV-3 04P57, collected at 0, 24, 48 and 72 h post inoculation (pi) and stained for viral antigens. Both EHV-1 and EHV-3 replicated in a plaquewise manner. The plaques were already observed at 24 h pi, their size increased over time and did not directly cross the basement membrane (BM). However, EHV-1 infected the monocytic cells (MC) and hijacked these cells to invade the lamina propria. In contrast, EHV-3 replication was fully restricted to epithelial cells; the virus did not breach the BM via a direct cell-to-cell spread nor used infected MC. EHV-1-induced plaques were larger in nasal mucosa compared to vaginal mucosa. The opposite was found for EHV-3-induced plaques. Both EHV-1 strains replicated with comparable kinetics in nasal mucosa. However, the extent of replication of the abortigenic strain in vaginal mucosa was significantly higher than that of the neuropathogenic strain. Two-to-five-fold lower numbers of EHV-1-infected MC underneath the BM were found in vaginal mucosa than in nasal mucosa. Our study has shown that (i) EHV-1 has developed in evolution a predisposition for respiratory mucosa and EHV-3 for vaginal mucosa, (ii) abortigenic EHV-1 replicates better in vaginal mucosa than neuropathogenic EHV-1 and (iii) EHV-3 demonstrated a strict epithelial tropism whereas EHV-1 in addition hijacked MC to invade the lamina propria.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820, Merelbeke, Belgium. haileleulnegussie.dubale@ugent.be.|College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 34, Debre Ziet, Ethiopia. haileleulnegussie.dubale@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Haileleul
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Negussie
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820, Merelbeke, Belgium. yewei.li@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Yewei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biotechnology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Tesfu74@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Tesfaye Sisay
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Tessema
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820, Merelbeke, Belgium. hans.nauwynck@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Hans J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Nauwynck
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D004861:Herpesvirus 1, Equid / Q000502:physiology*; D004858:Herpesvirus 3, Equid / Q000502:physiology*; D006736:Horses; D009092:Mucous Membrane / Q000166:cytology / Q000821:virology*; D009666:Nose; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques; D014621:Vagina; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000502:physiology*