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Journal of Virology, August 1999, p. 6852-6861, Vol. 73, No. 8
Department of Pathology, College of
Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State
University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523,1
and Department of Medicine, National Jewish Medical and
Research Center, Denver, Colorado 802062
Received 21 October 1998/Accepted 28 April 1999
Virus-infected monocytes rarely are detected in the bloodstreams of
animals or people infected with immunodeficiency-inducing lentiviruses,
yet tissue macrophages are thought to be a major reservoir of
virus-infected cells in vivo. We have identified feline
immunodeficiency virus (FIV) clinical isolates that are pathogenic in
cats and readily transmitted vertically. We report here that five of
these FIV isolates are highly monocytotropic in vivo. However, while
FIV-infected monocytes were numerous in the blood of experimentally
infected cats, viral antigen was not detectable in freshly isolated
cells. Only after a short-term (at least 12-h) in vitro monocyte
culture were FIV antigens detectable (by immunocytochemical analysis or
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). In vitro experiments suggested that
monocyte adherence provided an important trigger for virus antigen
expression. In the blood of cats infected with a prototype
monocytotropic isolate (FIV subtype B strain 2542), infected monocytes
appeared within 2 weeks, correlating with high blood
mononuclear-cell-associated viral titers and CD4 cell depletion. By
contrast, infected monocytes could not be detected in the blood of cats
infected with a less pathogenic FIV strain (FIV subtype A strain
Petaluma). We concluded that some strains of FIV are monocytotropic in
vivo. Moreover, this property may relate to virus virulence, vertical
transmission, and infection of tissue macrophages.
0022-538X/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
In Vivo Monocyte Tropism of Pathogenic Feline
Immunodeficiency Viruses
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences,
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523. Phone: (970)
491-6144. Fax: (970) 491-0603. E-mail: eahoover{at}lamar.colostate.edu.
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