Lactic dehydrogenase virus alteration of lymphocyte circulation.

Acute infection with lactic dehydrogenase virus (LDV) causes a systemic alteration in lymphocyte circulatory patterns. Peripheral lymph nodes (LN) and spleens in acutely, but not chronically, infected mice retain a significantly greater proportion of injected 51Cr-labeled lymphocytes than the respective tissues in noninfected controls. This increase in lymphocyte localization in LN and spleen is dependent upon the dose of LDV injected and the timing of the infection. A relatively large dose of LDV (10(8) infectious units) causes an early but very transient increase in splenic lymphocyte localization accompanied by an early but prolonged increase in lymphocyte recovery in LN. Smaller doses of LDV cause more prolonged effects on splenic lymphocyte recovery and retarded effects on lymphocyte localization in LN. Increases in splenic recovery were always accompanied by decreases in hepatic recovery of lymphocytes. LDV-induced alteration in lymphocyte circulation may be responsible for many previously observed modifications of immune responses in LDV-infected mice.