Lawson C M, O'Donoghue H, Reed W D
Department of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Nedlands.
Immunology. 1989 May;67(1):132-4.
BALB/c mice infected with murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) developed myocarditis. Athymic nu/nu mice infected with the virus did not develop myocarditis, in contrast to heterozygous T-cell competent nu/+mice. MCMV-infected BALB/c mice given cyclosporin A(CsA) a drug which inhibits the activation of T cells, showed a delay in the development of myocarditis relative to CsA-untreated mice infected with MCMV. However, BALB/c mice infected with MCMV, regardless of CsA treatment, developed both anti-MCMV antibodies and autoantibodies. Nu/nu mice infected with MCMV did not produce the anti-MCMV antibody response or the multiple autoantibody response which was observed in nu/+ MCMV-infected mice. Both nu/nu and CsA-treated animals displayed greater organ distribution of viral antigen than control MCMV-infected animals. These results suggest that the presence of a thymus is required for both the development of myocarditis and the multiple autoantibody response, which includes autoantibodies to cardiac muscle, and that CsA immunosuppression does not abrogate either myocarditis or the antibody response in mice following MCMV infection.
感染鼠巨细胞病毒（MCMV）的BALB/c小鼠会患上心肌炎。与杂合的具有T细胞功能的nu/+小鼠不同，感染该病毒的无胸腺nu/nu小鼠不会患上心肌炎。给予感染MCMV的BALB/c小鼠环孢素A（CsA）（一种抑制T细胞活化的药物），相对于未接受CsA治疗的感染MCMV的小鼠，其心肌炎的发展出现延迟。然而，无论是否接受CsA治疗，感染MCMV的BALB/c小鼠都会产生抗MCMV抗体和自身抗体。感染MCMV的nu/nu小鼠不会产生在感染MCMV的nu/+小鼠中观察到的抗MCMV抗体反应或多种自身抗体反应。与对照的感染MCMV的动物相比，nu/nu和接受CsA治疗的动物的病毒抗原在器官中的分布都更多。这些结果表明，胸腺的存在对于心肌炎的发展和多种自身抗体反应（包括针对心肌的自身抗体）都是必需的，并且CsA免疫抑制不会消除MCMV感染后小鼠的心肌炎或抗体反应。
