Yellow fever virus infection. A correlation of complement-fixing antigen with histopathology.

A sequential and quantitative survey of brain and liver of suckling mice for infective virus and complement-fixing antigen, after infection with yellow fever virus, showed that while there was progressive increase of infective virus content in both organs, only the brain showed a corresponding rise in CF antigen. Histopathological examination revealed that the liver was not significantly involved. The target organ was the brain, where the progressive pathological changes culminated in an acute encephalitis by the 3rd day of experiment. Organ destruction began with the molecular layer of the grey matter. But by the 4th day after infection the entire cerebral cortex was involved. At the initial stages the hippocampus was particularly affected. Tissue damage did not appear to be entirely due to the differential quantitative localization of infective virus. It was hypothesized that the CF antigen acting singly or in conjunction with some hypothetical proteins may be principally involved in the pathological outcome of the disease.