Nodular inflammatory foci are sites of T cell priming and control of murine cytomegalovirus infection in the neonatal lung.

ABSTRACT: Neonates, including mice and humans, are highly susceptible to cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. However, many aspects of neonatal CMV infections such as viral cell tropism, spatio-temporal distribution of the pathogen as well as genesis of antiviral immunity are unknown. With the use of reporter mutants of the murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) we identified the lung as a primary target of mucosal infection in neonatal mice. Comparative analysis of neonatal and adult mice revealed a delayed control of virus replication in the neonatal lung mucosa explaining the pronounced systemic infection and disease in neonates. This phenomenon was supplemented by a delayed expansion of CD8(+) T cell clones recognizing the viral protein M45 in neonates. We detected viral infection at the single-cell level an

SUBMITTER: Stahl FR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3861546 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature