Quantitative analysis of the acute and long-term CD4 T-cell response to a persistent gammaherpesvirus

Abstract

The murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV-68) replicates in respiratory epithelial cells, where it establishes a persistent, latent infection limited predominantly to B lymphocytes. The virus-specific CD4+ T-cell response in C57BL/6 mice challenged intranasally with MHV-68 is detected first in the mediastinal lymph nodes and then in the cervical lymph nodes and the spleen. The numbers of MHV-68-specific CD4+ T cells generated in congenic mice homozygous for disruption of the β2-microglobulin gene tended to be higher, indicating that the absence of the CD8+ set in this group resulted in a compensatory response. The peak frequency within the splenic CD4+ T-cell population may reach 1:50 in the acute..