QUANTITATION OF TRANSFORMING GROWTH-FACTOR-BETA IN PLASMA AND PULMONARY EPITHELIAL LINING FLUID OF SHEEP EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED WITH MAEDI-VISNA VIRUS

A model of experimental infection with EV1, a lytic British isolate of maedi-visna virus (MW), was developed. Ten Texel sheep were allocated to two groups and inoculated by the respiratory route with different inocula. Six of the animals received 10(7.2) TCID50 (tissue culture in fective dose) of EV1 strain, while four sheep were sham-inoculated wit h identically prepared virus-free buffer solution. Experimental infect ion was followed for 8 weeks post-inoculation (PI), with development o f precipitating antibodies to MW developed in the MW-inoculated animal s during the first 4 weeks PI. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-be ta) levels, in both bronchoalveolar lavage fluid supernatant and plasm a samples, were measured. Concentrations of pulmonary epithelial linin g fluid (PELF) TGF-beta were calculated. TGF-beta concentrations in PE LF were approximately 165-fold higher than in plasma. No significant d ifferences in the concentrations of plasma or PELF TGF-beta, either wi thin or between groups, were observed.