Evaluation of the Adaptive Immune Response to Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Evaluation of the adaptive immune response is critical to the advancement of our basic knowledge and understanding of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The cellular composition in the lung following RSV infection is often evaluated using flow cytometry. However, a limitation of this approach has been the inability to readily distinguish cells that are within the lung parenchyma from cells that remain in the pulmonary blood vessels. Herein, we detail a procedure to evaluate the adaptive immune response via flow cytometric analysis that incorporates an in vivo intravascular staining technique. This technique allows for discrimination of immune cells in the lung tissue from cells that remain in the pulmonary vasculature following perfusion. Therefore at any given time point following an RSV infection, the leukocytic populations in the lung parenchyma can be quantified and phenotypically assessed with high resolution. While we focus on the T lymphocyte response in the lung, this technique can be readily adapted to examine various leukocytic cell types in the lung following RSV infection.