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Increased Thymic Output during Acute Measles Virus Infection

W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology,¹ Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205-2179,² Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland,³ Virology Laboratory, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia⁴

Received 22 January 2003/ Accepted 23 April 2003

Measles virus infects thymic epithelia, induces a transient lymphopenia, and impairs cell-mediated immunity, but thymic function during measles has not been well characterized. Thirty Zambian children hospitalized with measles were studied at entry, hospital discharge, and at 1-month follow-up and compared to 17 healthy children. During hospitalization, percentages of naïve (CD62L⁺, CD45RA⁺) CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T lymphocytes decreased (P = 0.01 for both), and activated (HLA-DR⁺, CD25⁺, or CD69⁺) CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T lymphocytes increased (P = 0.02 and 0.03, respectively). T-cell receptor rearrangement excision circles (TRECs) in measles patients were increased in CD8⁺ T cells at entry compared to levels at hospital discharge (P = 0.02) and follow-up (P = 0.04). In CD4⁺ T cells, the increase in TRECS occurred later but was more sustained. At discharge, TRECs in CD4⁺ T cells (P = 0.05) and circulating levels of interleukin-7 (P = 0.007) were increased compared to control values and remained elevated for 1 month, similar to observations in two measles virus-infected rhesus monkeys. These findings suggest that a decrease in thymic output is not the cause of the lymphopenia and depressed cellular immunity associated with measles.

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