Viral Infection of Transgenic Mice Expressing a Viral Protein in Oligodendrocytes Leads to Chronic Central Nervous System Autoimmune Disease

Evans, Claire F.; Horwitz, Marc S.; Hobbs, Monte V.; Oldstone, Michael B.A.

To assess whether expression of a foreign protein by oligodendrocytes alone was enough to alter the pattern of immune surveillance in the CNS, transgenic mice expressing ␤-gal (MBP-␤gal) using the same MBP expression vector (18) were infected with LCMV and followed over time. The pattern of kinetics of immune cell infiltration in MBP-␤gal mice was identical to that observed for the nontransgenic mice. To test whether infection with other viruses could result in chronic CNS infiltration, MBP-LCMV transgenic positive mice were infected with vaccinia virus or Pichinde virus and followed over time. Infection of MBP-NP and MBP-GP mice by either of these viruses did not result in a chronic immune infiltration of their CNS tissue, and the pattern of immune surveillance was similar to that observed in nontransgenic mice.