Muggeridge Martin I, Grantham Michael L, Johnson F Brent
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA 71130, USA.
Virology. 2004 Oct 25;328(2):244-53. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2004.07.027.
Small polykaryocytes resulting from cell fusion are found in herpes simplex virus (HSV) lesions in patients, but their significance for viral spread and pathogenesis is unclear. Although syncytial variants causing extensive fusion in tissue culture can be readily isolated from laboratory strains, they are rarely found in clinical isolates, suggesting that extensive cell fusion may be deleterious in vivo. Syncytial mutations have previously been identified for several laboratory strains, but not for clinical isolates of HSV type 2. To address this deficiency, we studied a recent syncytial clinical isolate, finding it to be a mixture of two syncytial and one nonsyncytial strain. The two syncytial strains have novel mutations in glycoprotein B, and in vitro cell fusion assays confirmed that they are responsible for syncytium formation. This panel of clinical strains may be ideal for examining the effect of increased cell fusion on pathogenesis.
在患者的单纯疱疹病毒（HSV）损伤部位可发现由细胞融合产生的小多核细胞，但其对病毒传播和发病机制的意义尚不清楚。尽管在组织培养中能轻易分离出导致广泛融合的合胞体变体，但在临床分离株中却很少发现，这表明广泛的细胞融合在体内可能是有害的。此前已在几种实验室毒株中鉴定出合胞体突变，但在2型HSV的临床分离株中未发现。为解决这一不足，我们研究了一株近期的合胞体临床分离株，发现它是两种合胞体菌株和一种非合胞体菌株的混合物。这两种合胞体菌株在糖蛋白B中存在新的突变，体外细胞融合试验证实它们是形成合胞体的原因。这组临床菌株可能是研究细胞融合增加对发病机制影响的理想材料。
