Increased susceptibility to cytomegalovirus infection in beige mutant mice

Mice homozygous for the beige gene (bg/bg) are a homologue of the Chédiak-Higashi syndrome of man and are known to be selectively defective in natural killer (NK) cells. We have compared the susceptibility of bg/bg and bg/+ C57BL/6J mice to infection with murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV). Beige mice are more susceptible to lethal infection and develop 33- to 43-fold higher virus titers in the liver, spleen, and kidney than do bg/+ mice after a sublethal infection, although virus replication is the same in vitro in cultured fibroblasts or epithelial cells from these mice. Inoculation with a sublethal dose of virus stimulates a NK cell response, although this is lower in bg/bg mice despite higher titers of interferon type 1 than in bg/+. A dose of MCMV that is lethal only to bg/bg augments cytotoxicity within 12 hr in bg/+ mice, whereas cytotoxicity in bg/bg remains very low. In bone marrow chimeras, recipients of bg/bg marrow were more susceptible to MCMV and had lower NK cell responses after virus inoculation than did recipients of marrow from bg/+ donors. The greater susceptibility of beige mice to the virus suggests that NK cells may contribute to resistance early in McMV infection.