Studies on the Cell-Mediated Immunity in Chickens Infected with Marek's Disease Virus

Abstract

Benda V.: Studies on the Cell-Mediated Immunity in Chickens Infected with Marek's Disease Virus. Acta vet. Brno, 47,1978: 197-201. The effect oflymphocytes from MDV -infected chickens on HCr-labelled HPRS line 1 Iymphoblasts derived from an from an MDV-induced lymphoma was inves­ tigated by using a cytotoxicity test (CTT). In comparison with the control and vaccinated chickens, chickens inoculated with MDV showed cytotoxic activity as long as 11 weeks after infection. This supports the view of an important role of the cell-mediated immunity in the pathogenesis of Marek's disease. nCr cytotoxic assay, turkey herpesvirus. Marek's disease (MD), a herpesvirus-caused Iymphoproliferative disease of chickens (Chur­ chill and Biggs 1967), is not only an economically important zoonosis, but also a suitable experi­ mental model for studying the pathogenesis of the virus-induced tumour diseases. Attention has been directed recently towards the mechanism of natural and vaccine-induced immune response of chickens against infection with the oncogenic Marek's disease virus (MDV), perhaps in connec­ tion with the data reported on variations in the reliability of MDV vaccines. The cell-mediated reaction, more precisely, the reaction mediated by sensitized T lymphocytes, which tends to eli­ minate cells bearing MDV -specific virus antigens of MD-specific tumor antigens, the latter being designated MATSA (Witter et al. 1975), is presumed to predominate in this case. This comunica­ tion presents some findings supporting the assumption that an antitumour immunity exists in MDV-infected chickens.