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Journal of Virology, November 1998, p. 9291-9297, Vol. 72, No. 11
Department of Microbiology, University of
South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota
57069,1 and
Department of Veterinary
Microbiology and Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman,
Washington 991642
Received 28 January 1998/Accepted 7 August 1998
Previous cell infectivity studies have demonstrated that the
lentivirus equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) infects tissue macrophages in vivo and in vitro. In addition, some strains of EIAV
replicate to high titer in vitro in equine fibroblasts and fibroblast
cell lines. Here we report a new cell type, macrovascular endothelial
cells, that is infectible with EIAV. We tested the ability of EIAV to
infect purified endothelial cells isolated from equine umbilical cords
and renal arteries. Infectivity was detected by cell supernatant
reverse transcriptase positivity, EIAV antigen positivity
within individual cells, and the detection of viral RNA by in situ
hybridization. Virus could rapidly spread through the endothelial
cultures, and the supernatants of infected cultures contained high
titers of infectious virus. There was no demonstrable cell killing in
infected cultures. Three of four strains of EIAV that were tested
replicated in these cultures, including MA-1, a fibroblast-tropic
strain, Th.1, a macrophage-tropic strain, and WSU5, a strain that is
fibroblast tropic and can cause disease. Finally, upon necropsy of a
WSU5-infected horse 4 years postinfection, EIAV-positive endothelial
cells were detected in outgrowths of renal artery cultures.
These findings identify a new cell type that is infectible with EIAV.
The role of endothelial cell infection in the course of equine
infectious anemia is currently unknown, but endothelial cell infection
may be involved in the edema that can be associated with infection.
Furthermore, the ability of EIAV to persistently infect endothelial
cultures and the presence of virus in endothelial cells from a
long-term carrier suggest that this cell type can serve as a reservoir
for the virus during subclinical phases of infection.
Equine infectious anemia virus
(EIAV) is a lentivirus that causes an acute disease during periods of
frank viremia that is distinguished by fever and thrombocytopenia
(6, 7, 12). Episodes of viremia can occur during subsequent
months and may cause chronic anemia, ventral edema, and general
wasting. In most horses, the viremia and accompanying clinical disease
are eventually controlled, resulting in a clinically quiescent,
seropositive carrier status.
Several studies have investigated the sites of viral replication during
acute, clinically severe episodes of EIA. Early immunofluorescence studies by McGuire et al. identified viral antigen-positive cells in a
number of macrophage-rich tissues such as spleen, lung, liver, and bone
marrow (19). Rice et al. confirmed and extended these studies by Southern blotting analysis of proviral sequences
(27). Again, proviral sequences were found in tissues rich
in tissue macrophages, such as liver, lymph node, spleen, and bone
marrow. The first direct demonstration that EIAV replication occurred in macrophages in vivo was performed by Sellon et al. through colocalization of active viral replication with cells that
immunostained for macrophage-specific markers (31). Thus,
during the acute phase of the infection, tissue macrophages in a number
of different organs are productively infected with EIAV; however, other
infected cell types during the acute or carrier phase of the infection have not been identified.
In tissue culture, EIAV has been found to replicate in equine
monocyte-derived macrophages (14), equine fibroblasts
(13, 16), equine fetal kidney cells (4), and
canine and feline fibroblast cell lines (4, 13). Strains of
virus previously grown in fibroblasts usually have a preference for
replication in fibroblast and fibroblast cell lines, whereas strains
obtained in vivo during a viremic episode or strains passaged in
macrophages replicate to higher titers in primary equine
macrophage cultures (5, 24). Here we demonstrate for
the first time that equine macrovascular endothelial cells are
productively infected with EIAV.
Endothelial cell cultures.
Equine endothelial cells were
isolated from umbilical cords from term pregnancies.
Morphologically, isolated umbilical vein endothelial cells (UVEC)
were relatively uniform and, upon confluence, had the characteristic
cobblestone appearance of macrovascular endothelial cells (Fig.
1a). First- or second-passage
cultures were found to be greater than 99% vimentin positive
(data not shown), cytokeratin negative (data not shown), and von
Willebrand's factor positive (Fig. 1b), indicating that the cultures
were endothelial cells. As previously reported for horse endothelial
cells, these cells were negative for staining with the lectin
Ulex europaeus (28).
0022-538X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Equine Endothelial Cells Support Productive
Infection of Equine Infectious Anemia Virus
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ABSTRACT
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FIG. 1.
Immunostaining characterization of an equine UVEC
culture. (a) The UVEC culture as observed with transmitted light
(magnification, ×100) showing the typical cobblestone appearance of
macrovascular endothelial cells. (b) The same field of cells observed
under UV light (magnification, ×100). All cells in this field were von
Willebrand's factor positive, indicating that they were from the
endothelium. Acetone-water (3:1)-fixed UVEC were immunostained for von
Willebrand's factor with a 1:800 dilution of rabbit anti-human von
Willebrand's factor antisera (Dako) followed by fluorescein
isothiocyanate-conjugated goat anti-rabbit (1:500). Negative controls
included the use of normal rabbit serum as the primary antiserum. To
obtain UVEC, umbilical cords were extensively washed in Dulbecco
modified Eagle medium containing antibiotics and fungizone prior to
cell isolation. A trypsin-versene solution (0.05% trypsin, 0.02%
EDTA) was injected into vessels, which were tied off and incubated at
37°C for 1 to 2 h. Trypsinized cells were collected from the
vessels, and trypsin incubation of the vessels was repeated. Cells were
pooled, washed, and plated at a density of approximately 2 × 105/T25 flask in Dulbecco modified Eagle medium with 40%
fetal calf serum and antibiotics and fungizone. Cells were trypsinized
and subdivided 1:4 every 4 to 5 days.
In vitro EIAV infections. UVEC cultures were infected with either 225 or 2,250 tissue culture infectious units (TCIU) of the MA-1 strain of EIAV as titered in the equine dermal fibroblast cell line, ED (5). Cultures were maintained for 2 weeks, and supernatants were monitored during the infection for reverse transcriptase (RT) activity. At the higher infectious titer, RT activity was detectable by day 6 postinfection (Fig. 2a). Over the 2-week infection period, RT activities continued to increase, suggesting that active virus replication was occurring in the cultures.
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EIAV infection of renal artery endothelial cells. Phenotypic and infectivity studies similar to those described above for UVEC cultures were also performed with equine renal endothelial cells (EREC), and these macrovascular endothelial cells were also found to be von Willebrand's factor positive and readily infectable with the MA-1 strain of EIAV (data not shown). This result indicated that EIAV infection is not unique for UVEC cultures and suggested that all equine macrovascular endothelial cells may be infectable with EIAV.
EIAV infection of UVEC cultures results in a chronic infection. By light microscopy, no obvious differences in cell numbers in the uninfected and infected cultures were apparent over the course of an infection, suggesting that EIAV infection of macrovascular endothelial cells was a chronic infection rather than a cytolytic one. MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assays were performed to detect if more subtle changes in cell numbers were occurring during infection. By 2 weeks postinfection, when >90% of the cells were antigen positive in the infected cell cultures, the MTT assay values for the infected cultures were about 70% of those of the uninfected cultures (data not shown). These infected UVEC cultures continued to replicate over a period of several months. Thus, viral infection did not result in massive cell death of the UVEC cultures; however, infection may have slowed cell growth, since a modest decrease in cell numbers in infected cultures compared to uninfected cultures was observed over time.
Cell tropism studies. To characterize the replication competence of EIAV strains having differing cell tropisms, four different strains of virus were titered for infectious virus in UVEC, EREC, equine dermal fibroblasts (ED), and equine macrophage cultures (Table 1). MA-1 is a fibroblast-tropic strain of EIAV that is avirulent in vivo (5). Th.1 is a macrophage-tropic strain of unknown virulence (5). Wyoming is a highly virulent strain that has been maintained by serial passage through horses, with stocks taken during the initial disease episode. WSU5 is a mildly virulent strain that is a Wyoming derivative and has been passaged through fetal kidney cells and back passaged through a series of three horses to reestablish virulence (23). WSU5 and Th.1 were found to replicate to high titers in all cells tested, whereas MA-1 replicated in the ED, UVEC and EREC cultures and the Wyoming strain of virus replicated only in macrophages. This limited cell tropism of the MA-1 and Wyoming strains had previously been reported (5, 24). Thus, the macrovascular endothelial cell cultures support replication of the same viral strains as ED cells and produced similar levels of infectious virus as detected by TCIU assays. A possible explanation for the absence of Wyoming infectivity in endothelial cultures is that virions from serum may be associated with inhibitors that decrease the infectivity of the virus. Alternatively, this strain of virus that is highly virulent in horses and moderately infectious in equine macrophages may not infect in endothelial cells. To determine if serum products were responsible for the absence of infection of endothelial cells, we infected UVEC cultures with a stock of virulent Wyoming virus that had been passaged once in vitro through primary equine macrophages (these stocks were a kind gift of Fred Fuller). No RT or viral antigen staining was detected in these UVEC cells, indicating that the UVEC cultures were not infectible with Wyoming (data not shown). It is possible that the Wyoming strain of EIAV may infect only macrophages; however, recent in situ hybridization studies of tissues from acutely ill Wyoming-infected horses revealed von Willebrand's factor-positive cells that were strongly positive for EIAV RNA, suggesting that in vivo endothelial cells are infectible with the Wyoming strain of EIAV (22a). It is possible that other types of endothelial cells, such as microvascular and high venule, that were not studied here, may replicate the Wyoming strain in vitro.
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Virus positivity in endothelial cells obtained from an in vivo infection. Renal artery endothelial cells were isolated at necropsy from a horse infected 4 years earlier with the WSU5 strain of EIAV. This horse had been seropositive for EIAV long term and was clinically healthy prior to necropsy. Cultures were maintained for six passages prior to staining to generate enough cells for analysis of EIAV RNA by in situ hybridization and immunopositivity for von Willebrand's factor. The presence of endothelial cells in the culture was demonstrated by positivity upon immunostaining for von Willebrand's factor (Fig. 3C). In situ hybridization of the culture revealed cells that were actively synthesizing EIAV-specific RNA (Fig. 3E). A combination of immunostaining for von Willebrand's factor and in situ hybridization for EIAV-specific RNA revealed dually positive cells in the culture (Fig. 3A, arrowhead). The culture also contained infected cells which were not expressing von Willebrand's factor (Fig. 3A, open arrow); however, maintenance of endothelial cells in culture can result in loss of von Willebrand's factor expression (11, 25). In addition, von Willebrand's factor-positive cells that were negative for viral RNA were observed (Fig. 3A, solid arrow). Infectious virus was detected in supernatants of these cultures, indicating that a productive infection was ongoing in the culture (data not shown). The dual positivity of some cells for von Willebrand's factor and EIAV RNA confirms the identity of infected cells as endothelium. In addition, these findings strongly suggest that endothelial cells were infectible not only in vitro but also in vivo. However, these studies cannot exclude the possibility that another in vivo-infected cell type such as a fibroblast or a macrophage could be a low-level contaminant in our endothelial cultures and have passed the infection to endothelial cells in vitro.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R29 CA72063 (W.M.) and K11 AI01255 (J.L.O.).
We thank Susan Carpenter and Keith Weaver for critical reviews of the manuscript.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069. Phone: (605) 677-6681. Fax: (605) 677-5124. E-mail: wmaury{at}usd.edu.
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