Experimental Viral Infection in Vestibular Ganglia of Rats

Abstract

Viral infection has been suggested to be one of the causative agents of vestibular neuronitis. It is probable that reactivation of herpes simplex virus (HSV) in the vestibular ganglia may lead to vestibular dysfunction, causing vertigo and/or disequilibrium.In this study, rats were innoculated with HS V-I through the middle ear. We first examined the vestibular ganglia in the acute phase with an immunofluorescent (IF) method. We detected viral antigens in some vestibular ganglion cells. Second, we used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect virus DNA in vestibular gang-lia of rats in the latent phase. We found virus DNA in about 60% of vestibular ganglia on the innoculated side only. Third, we used reverse transcript-PCR (RT-PCR) to detect latency-asso-ciated transcripts (LAT), one of the mRNA of HSV-I . We found LAT in the vestibular gang-lion on the innoculated side only in the latent phase.These data indicate that HSV-I infects vesti-bular ganglia in the acute phase and establishes a latent infection. Only in the latent phase, LA T are transcripted in vestibular ganglia as in trigeminal ganglia.