Experimental coxackievirus B 1 infection in immunologically altered mice.

The patterns of response to coxackievirus B1 infection were studied in intragastrically infected mice differing with respect to their state of immunity. It is shown that coxsackie-viral infection of mice with lymphocytopenia elicited by pretreatment with lymphocyte-specific antiserum resulted in higher virus titres, longer virus persistence and more accentuated histologic changes in the parenchyma of target organs than seen in a control group of infected mice. On the other hand, in mice infected in the stage of lymphocytosis induced by nonspecific stimulation with pancreas-specific antiserum the clearance of infectious virus from the blood and target organs was distinctly faster than in infected controls and the histologic changes in the parenchyma of organs milder and reversible. It is assumed that lymphocytes play a major role already in the early phases of coxackievirus B1 infection in mice.