Organokinetics for Transient Cytomegalovirus Infection in Mice

We determined the primary level of dissemination of the cytomegalovirus into the mouse organs and its significance. This was completed prior to our engagement in a wider project on the immune and molecular aspects of the pathogenesis of MCMV infection in the Balb/c mice. By this venture, we may have opened opportunities to develop one or more vaccines against the virus. Mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with the virus. At day 1, 3, 7, 14 and 28 after infection, the murine organs including the spleen, salivary glands, inguinal lymph nodes, liver, bone marrow, and lungs, were collected. The organs were assessed for the expression of MCMV-DNA, for the infectious viral titer and part of the tissues was formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded for morphological evaluation. Each organ was found to present a different configuration of the three components reflecting the viral spread. Thus, the lungs and the bone marrow showed high levels of DNA and low titers of infectious virus, taken to mean evidence of latency. The salivary glands revealed evidence of a persistent infection, as expressed by high levels of MCMV-DNA and constant titers of infective virus that lasted beyond day 28. However, the most remarkable finding was that the latency probably discerned in the spleen was localized in the stromal cells, but not in the lymphocytic component. To this extent, we may have determined the MCMV journey in the mouse.