The Possible Immunological Mechanisms of Pathology in Mice with Congenitally Acquired Influenza Infection.

The fact that congenitally acquired viral infection often strongly influences specific and non-specific immunoreactivity is well documented. Viral infection of pregnant female may lead to serious of pathological consequences for the offspring, namely, to mortality, developmental disorders and in less severe cases to body growth retardation, wasting syndrome and immunodeficiency. In this connection, we have studied congenitally acquired influenza infection in CII mice. The progeny of C57BL/6 female mice, which were infected with influenza virus (A/WSN) by the 3rd week of pregnancy, exhibited a profound growth retardation and major morphological lesions of central nervous system, lymphoid and other organs. We have found out that mice with congenitally acquired influenza infection had autoreactive killer T cells in their lymphoid organs. CII mice exhibited some features of chronic immune activation, namely elevated spontaneous proliferation, spontaneous development of plaque forming cells, and spontaneous inhibition of migration activity. Lymphoid cells from mice with congenitally acquired influenza infection induced an enlargement of regional lymph nodes after they had been injected into syngeneic non-infected recipient in popleteal node assay. The level of this reaction depended on the level of virus-bearing cells in donor cell population and correlated with the increase of gammadelta and CD4(+) T cells. The role of these interactions in pathology is discussed herein.

The Attenuation of Effectors and Induction of Suppressors of Delayed Type Hypersensitivity Reaction under the Treatment with Psoralen Photooxidation Products.

Psoralens, together with ultraviolet light A (PUVA), are used for the treatment of the series of T cell mediated diseases. The role of photooxidative reactions in psoralen phototherapy is not entirely clear. Using model of delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction to sheep red blood cells and evaluating the antibody production in mice, we investigated the influence of produced in vitro psoralen photooxidation products (POP) on the functions of T and B effectors. The research showed POP to induce inhibition of the DTH reaction independently on the phase of immune response it was injected. It was revealed that in vitro POP treatment of splenocytes, containing mature effectors, partially impaired their capacity to transfer the DTH reaction. The POP effect was not related to the direct cytolysis. In vivo POP injection to sensitized mice-donors resulted in much stronger alteration of DTH effectors than in the case of in vitro POP treatment. We elaborated the model for evaluation of functional activity of DTH suppressors. Using the model, we found that, being intravenously injected, POP induced DTH suppressors other then T cells. Furthermore, it was shown that intravenously injected POP did not affect antibody production. Thus, the POP selectively influenced T cells and had no effect on B cells. Probably, psoralen photooxidation products may be used for the therapy of some hyperproliferative T cell mediated diseases.