Gamma-herpesvirus latency is preferentially maintained in splenic germinal center and memory B cells

The gamma-herpesviruses are oncogenic B cell lymphotrophic viruses that establish life-long latency in the host. Murine gamma-herpesvirus 68 (MHV-68) infection of mice represents a unique system for analyzing gamma-herpesvirus latency in splenic B cells at different stages of infection. After intranasal infection with MHV-68 we analyzed the establishment of latency 14 days after infection, and the maintenance of latency 3 months after infection in different purified subpopulations of B cells in the spleen. The data show that MHV-68 latency is mainly established in germinal center B cells and that long-term latency is preferentially maintained in two different subsets of isotype-switched B cells, germinal center and memory B cells. Cell cycle analysis indicates that MHV-68 is located in both cycling and resting isotype-switched B cells. Analysis of viral gene expression showed that both lytic and latent viral transcripts were differentially expressed in germinal center and memory B cells during long-term latency. Together, these observations suggested that gamma-herpesviruses exploit the B cell life cycle in the spleen.