[Immunodepressive effect of measles and parotitis virus in vitro]

Mechanisms of suppressive effect of measles and parotitis virus on lymphocyte proliferation and cytolytic activity of natural killers are studied in vitro. Both viruses exert a weak mitogenic effect on human blood lymphocytes and at the same time suppress their response to phytohemagglutinin stimulation in vitro. Suppressive effect of measles virus is more expressed than of parotitis virus. Moreover, measles virus suppresses lysis of human blood killer target cells. The suppressive effect manifests as early as in 1 h and increases after 3 h of natural killer cell contact with measles virus.