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Immunomodulation of peripheral T cells in chickens infected with Marek's disease virus: involvement in immunosuppression

Masakazu Hattori

Department of Disease Control, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060, Japan

Marek's disease virus (MDV) causes T cell immunosuppression in chickens during latent infection. Morphological changes specific to apoptosis were demonstrated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of MDV-infected chickens at 2–3 weeks post-inoculation (p.i.). Analysis of DNA fragmentation in T cell subsets in the peripheral blood revealed that CD4⁺ T cells but not CD8⁺ T cells underwent apoptosis after MDV infection. The proportion of CD4⁺ T cells, but not that of CD8⁺ T cells, in the peripheral blood expanded transiently at 16 days p.i., and rapidly decreased 1 week later. The decrease in CD4⁺ T cells might be mediated by apoptosis, because a rapid reduction in CD4⁺ T cells was observed when these cells underwent apoptosis. Analysis of the T cell-receptor (TCR) repertoire of the peripheral blood showed that V1 but not V2- TCR-bearing cells expanded at 16 days p.i., when the transient expansion of the CD4⁺ T cell population was observed in these chickens. Flow cytometric profiles also showed that the expression of CD8 was down-regulated after infection with MDV, but there was no difference in the expression level of CD4 molecules between normal and infected chickens. Northern blot analysis indicated that the down-regulation of CD8 occurred at the transcriptional level. These results suggest that both apoptosis of CD4⁺ T cells and down-regulation of CD8 molecules could contribute to the immunosuppression caused by MDV.

^* Author for correspondence. Fax +81 11 709 7198. e-mail monuma@vetmed.hokudai.ac.jp

Present address: Department of Immunology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606, Japan.

Received 11 April 1995; accepted 10 August 1995.

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