Modulation of cytokine expression by CD4+ T cells during coxsackievirus B3 infections of BALB/c mice initiated by cells expressing the gamma delta + T-cell receptor.

Two variants of coxsackievirus B3 have been used to investigate the pathogenesis of myocarditis in BALB/c mice. H3 virus induces moderate myocarditis and H310A1 virus induces minimal myocarditis, although both viruses infect and replicate in the heart. Cells expressing the gamma delta+ T-cell receptor composed 5 to 13% of the lymphocytes infiltrating the hearts of H3 virus-infected mice and belonged to either the CD4- CD8+ gamma delta+- or CD4- CD8- gamma delta+-cell population. Giving 5,000 gamma delta+ cells isolated from the hearts of H3 virus-infected mice to H310A1 virus-infected recipients restored myocarditis susceptibility in the recipient animals and shifted the pattern of cytokine production in the virus-immune CD4+-cell population from being predominantly interleukin-4 producing to being predominantly gamma interferon producing in the H310A1 virus-infected mice. Apoptosis was evident in the infiltrating lymphocyte population in the myocardia of H3 virus-infected mice by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick-end labeling assay and in splenic lymphocytes by DNA fragmentation in agarose gel electrophoresis and was confined to the CD4+ population. No apoptosis was observed in H310A1 virus-infected mice, but apoptosis was induced subsequent to gamma delta +-T-cell transfer. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that gamma delta+ T cells may help modulate cytokine responses during virus infections in vivo and that apoptosis might be involved in this modulation.