Leroux C, Cordier G, Mercier I, Chastang J, Lyon M, Quérat G, Greenland T, Vigne R, Mornex J F
Laboratoire d'Immunologie et de Biologie Pulmonaire, INSERM CJF 93-08, Lyon, France.
Arch Virol. 1995;140(1):1-11. doi: 10.1007/BF01309719.
Visna-maedi virus induces in sheep an interstitial lung disease characterised by an accumulation of smooth muscle cells (SMC) or myomatosis. Infection by HIV-1 has been recently associated with disorders of the vessel-derived cells: primary pulmonary hypertension, coronary artery disease and smooth muscle tumors in humans. We hypothesized that, besides their regular targets (i.e. macrophages and lymphocytes), lentiviruses could infect smooth muscle cells. Smooth muscle cell cultures derived from ovine aorta were infected with visna-maedi virus strain K1514. The cultured cells were smooth muscle cells as demonstrated by their antigenic expression of alpha-actin and vimentin. The lentiviral infection of the smooth muscle cells was demonstrated by a typical cytopathic effect (syncytia), the expression of virus specific antigens, and the presence of genomic RNA detected by Northern blot analysis and RT PCR. The detection of a reverse transcriptase activity, the presence of viral RNA in supernatants of infected smooth muscle cells detected by RT PCR and their ability to infect ovine permissive fibroblasts demonstrated a productive infection. The ability of smooth muscle cells to be infected by lentiviruses may participate in the pathogenesis of the tissue damage associated with the lentiviruses such as myomatosis in sheep and vascular disease in humans.
维斯纳-梅迪病毒可在绵羊中引发一种间质性肺病，其特征为平滑肌细胞（SMC）积聚或肌瘤形成。最近发现，人类感染HIV-1与血管衍生细胞的紊乱有关：原发性肺动脉高压、冠状动脉疾病和平滑肌瘤。我们推测，除了其常规靶标（即巨噬细胞和淋巴细胞）外，慢病毒还可能感染平滑肌细胞。用维斯纳-梅迪病毒K1514株感染源自绵羊主动脉的平滑肌细胞培养物。培养细胞为平滑肌细胞，这可通过其α-肌动蛋白和波形蛋白的抗原表达得以证明。平滑肌细胞的慢病毒感染通过典型的细胞病变效应（多核巨细胞）、病毒特异性抗原的表达以及通过Northern印迹分析和逆转录聚合酶链反应检测到的基因组RNA的存在得以证实。逆转录酶活性的检测、通过逆转录聚合酶链反应在受感染平滑肌细胞上清液中检测到病毒RNA以及它们感染绵羊易感成纤维细胞的能力证明了一种有生产性的感染。平滑肌细胞被慢病毒感染的能力可能参与了与慢病毒相关的组织损伤的发病机制，如绵羊的肌瘤形成和人类的血管疾病。
