ABSTRACT
Objective To provide a comprehensive reference index for different mouse models of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection by investigating the related clinical manifestations, pathological features and characteristics of viral distribution in tissues and organs of BALB/c mice infected with different HSV-1 strains by using different strategies.Methods Acute infection models were established by challenging BALB/c mice at age three or six weeks with HSV-1 17+ and McKrae strains via intranasal and corneal administrations.Correspondingly, chronic infection models were established with BALB/c mice through subcutaneous and foot pad injections.Results Although all experimental mice showed trichiasis and roachback, there were differences in weight and fatality rate among different groups.Results of the quantitative PCR detection indicated that the proliferation of HSV-1 in the nervous tissues (brain, spinal cord, trigeminal ganglion) varied among different groups.The pathological examination indicated that in the acute infection groups, significant pathological changes only occurred in the brain tissues, while in the chronic infection groups, pathological injuries only occurred in the trigeminal ganglia.Although a key index latency-associated transcript (LAT) was not detected in the trigeminal nerve tissues of mice in the chronic infection groups, co-culturing the tissues with Vero cells resulted in infectious lesions in the cells.Conclusion This study indicates that there are significant differences in weight and fatality rate among different BALB/c mouse models of HSV-1 infection.Varied replication dynamics of HSV-1 were observed in different tissues or organs of the BALB/c mice in different groups.Therefore, different indexes should be adopted to evaluate different HSV-1 infection models.