Apoptosis is induced by infectious bursal disease virus replication in productively infected cells as well as in antigen-negative cells in their vicinity.

The kinetics of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) replication and induction of apoptosis were investigated in vitro and in vivo. After infection of chicken embryo (CE) cells with IBDV strain Cu-1, the proportion of apoptotic cells increased from 5.8% at 4 h post-infection (p.i.) to 64.5% at 48 h p.i. The proportion of apoptotic cells correlated with IBDV replication. UV-inactivated IBDV particles did not induce apoptosis. Double labelling revealed that, early after infection, the majority of antigen-expressing cells were not apoptotic; double-labelled cells appeared more frequently at later times. Remarkably, apoptotic cells were frequently located in the vicinity of antigen-expressing cells. This indicated that an apoptosis-inducing factor(s) might be released by cells that replicate IBDV. Since interferon (IFN) production has been demonstrated after IBDV infection, IFN was considered to be one of several factors. However, supernatants of infected CE cells in which virus infectivity had been neutralized were not sufficient to induce apoptosis. Similar results were observed in the infected bursae of Fabricius: early after infection, most of the cells either showed virus antigens or were apoptotic. Again, double-labelled cells appeared more frequently late after infection. This suggests that indirect mechanisms might also be involved in the induction of apoptosis in vivo, contributing to the rapid depletion of cells in the IBDV-infected bursa.