Replication of Aleutian mink disease parvovirus in mink lymph node histocultures

Aleutian mink disease parvovirus (ADV), causes an immune disorder with a pe rsistent infection of lymphoid organs in adult mink. We studied replication of ADV in gel-supported histocultures prepared from adult mink mesenteric lymph node (MLN). Evidence of virus replication in the histocultures was fi rst observed by indirect immunofluorescence 72 h after incubation with viru s. Cells resembling lymphocytes and macrophages contained both ADV capsid ( VP2) and nonstructural (NS1 and NS2) proteins, and were present in a distri bution suggestive of infected cells within germinal centres. ADV replicativ e form and encapsidated virion DNA were also detected in infected histocult ures at time-points after 72 h. In addition, we were able to passage ADV-Ut ah to a new round of histocultures. These results suggested that the infect ed cells were actual target cells for ADV replication and that productive A DV-Utah replication, complete with the generation of virus, was occurring i n the histocultures. The mink MLN histocultures provide a system to study t he replication and molecular pathogenesis of ADV in target tissues.