ENTEROVIRUS-INFECTED IMMUNE CELLS OF SPLEEN AND LYMPH-NODES IN THE MURINE MODEL OF CHRONIC MYOCARDITIS A ROLE IN PATHOGENESIS

Molecular hybridization studies have demonstrated that human enterovir uses, including group B coxsackieviruses (CVB), are detectable not onl y in endomyocardial biopsies of patients with acute enterovirus myocar ditis but also in those with chronic disease Such infections are obser ved in some patients with end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy, indicating the possibility of persistent heart muscle infection. Enterovirus per sistence in the human heart is supported by the recent discovery in va rious murine models of enterovirus myocarditis that chronic inflamed h eart muscle lesions are consistently associated with enterovirus persi stence. Application of in-situ hybridization in a multiorgan study of CVB3-infected immunocompetent mice now reveals that, in addition to th e myocardium, spleen and lymph nodes are persistently infected. During acute myocarditis, the majority of infected spleen cells was found to be located within the follicles of spleen and lymph nodes. At later s tages of the disease enteroviral infection was shown to be restricted to cells of the germinal centre in secondary follicles of spleen and l ymph nodes. Thus infected immunocompetent cells may play an important role in dissemination of the vii us in the host and maintenance of a n on-cardiac viral reservoir.