Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol 165, 705-719, Copyright © 1987 by Rockefeller University Press
Antiviral antibody-producing cells in parenchymatous organs during persistent virus infection
D Moskophidis, J Lohler and F Lehmann-Grube
In mice persistently infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus
(LCMV), the parenchymatous organs contain infiltrates of mononuclear cells,
the sizes and numbers of which vary between strains and become more
numerous and extensive when the animals grow older. Histologically, these
were found to possess a tissue-like structure, and by use of
immunohistologic procedures they were shown to contain plasma cells
secreting IgM and IgG. Cells of kidneys, livers, brains, and spleens of
LCMV carrier mice were dispersed by digestion with trypsin, leukocytes were
separated by density gradient centrifugation, and numbers of cells
producing antibodies against LCMV were determined by use of a solid-phase
immunoenzymatic technique. In all these organs, cells producing
LCMV-specific IgM and IgG antibodies were demonstrated, the latter more
numerous than the former. Their numbers correlated with numbers and extent
of the lymphoid cell infiltrates. The blood of the same mice was
essentially free of antiviral antibody-forming cell. The proportion of
cells producing LCMV-specific antibodies to all cells producing Ig of any
specificity varied between organs, being lowest in spleen, intermediate in
liver and kidney, and highest in the brain, where in individual mice up to
90% of all active cells produced virus- specific antibodies. The LCMV
carrier mouse should prove to be a useful animal model to investigate
antibody production in parenchymatous organs during persistent virus
infections.
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