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Immunosuppression during Acute Murine Cytomegalovirus Infection¹

From the Departments of Pediatrics and Medical Microbiology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, Wisconsin

Abstract

Murine cytomegalovirus was found to exert a suppressive effect on several components of the primary immune response during acute sublethal infection of 4-week-old mice. Neutralizing antibody against MCMV was delayed in appearance, with only minimal titers as late as 14 days after infection. Primary response to i.p. sheep erythrocytes was profoundly suppressed when antigen was administered during the acute stage of MCMV infection. This suppression affected both serum hemagglutinin levels and 19 S and 7 S hemolytic antibody-forming spleen cells. No splenic cell destruction or deletion could be detected at the dosage of virus used. Maximum suppression of hemolytic plaque formation correlated with peak viral concentration in the spleens of these mice; in the case of serum hemagglutinin, suppression persisted well beyond the time when MCMV had been effectively eliminated from the spleen. Evidence was also obtained to show that delay in processing of antigen could not fully account for the immunosuppression. Thus a nonlethal virus-induced alteration in immune cell competence is postulated. This change may relate antibody and interferon production, inasmuch as both functions are suppressed over the same interval in acute MCMV infection.

Footnotes

This investigation was supported by Grant AI-06334 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, United States Public Health Service, and by Grant AT (11-1)-1455 from the Atomic Energy Commission.