Comparison of T Cell Immune Response to Murine Cytomegalovirus (MCMV) in “Dirty” and Inbred Mice

Abstract

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a herpes virus that is estimated to infect roughly half of the population of the United States and has been shown to cause congenital birth defects as well as disease in AIDs patients and immunocompromised patients. Due to this, extensive research has been done in mice using its ortholog, murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV). Although many breakthroughs have been made, the transfer of data over from the laboratory into human studies has proven difficult. Here, we examine the use of “dirty” mice as an alternative for laboratory mice as models of the human immune system. We injected “dirty” mice from the pet store and inbred laboratory mice with MCMV and measured the T cell immune response. Using flow cytometry, we quantified levels of activated cytotoxic T cells (CD8+CD25+) and activated helper T cells (CD4+CD25+) in the blood. We observed that there was no significant difference in the circulating levels of CD8+CD25+ or CD4+CD25+ T cells between dirty mice and clean mice 3 days after viral infection. In contrast, 9 days after viral infection, we observed significantly (p<0.05) higher percentages of CD8+CD25+ and CD4+CD25+ in dirty mice than in clean. These results show that dirty mice have significantly greater immune response that more closely mirrors the human immune system than inbred mice do. This suggests that dirty mice could be a more viable option for modeling the human immune system response to viral infection than our current mouse models.Support or Funding InformationFort Lewis CollegeThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.