[Herpes simplex virus retinitis. Role of the immune system in the animal experiment]

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) can induce severe inflammation in the retina. Von Szily described a model in which anterior chamber injection of HSV results in anterior uveitis with relative protection of the retina, but contralateral retinitis. The role of the immune system in the von Szily mouse model was investigated in our experiments. Earlier experiments demonstrated resistance to contralateral retinitis in some mouse strains. Our results suggest that natural killer (NK) cells do not play an important role in this phenomenon. In the next step the role of NK cells and T cells in the retinitis was investigated. After depletion of NK cells with anti-NK antibody, sensitive BALB/c and resistant CB17 mice did not have a higher incidence of retinitis. CB-17 mice developed more encephalitis after depletion, demonstrating an important role of NK cells against generalization of HSV. The role of T cells was investigated using T-cell-deficient nude mice. These mice had bilateral retinitis in about 95% of cases, demonstrating the role of T cells in protection of the retina in this model. Anti-HSV-1 serum transfer provided protection for the contralateral retina.