Central nervous system infection and immune response in mice inoculated into the lip with herpes simplex virus type 1.

Virus may be recovered from various areas of the central nervous system (CNS) of mice for as long as 11 days after inoculation of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) into the lip. The probability of isolation from any particular region of the CNS seems to be a function of the distance of that area from the root-entry zone of the trigeminal nerve. It is also mouse strain-dependent, with much more extensive evidence of brain infection being found in BALB/c and C3H rather than C57BL/6 mice, in which it is limited to the pons. The virus could not be isolated from the CNS of BALB/c mice after 10 days, though HSV-1 is readily recovered from the trigeminal ganglia at least through day 38. Significant concentrations of HSV-1-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) were demonstrated consistently in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from day 12 after exposure to virus. The persistence of relatively high concentrations of IgM in the CSF indicates that much of this antibody may be synthesized locally in the brain.