Studies on the interrelation of resistance and immunity in a mouse model system of herpes-simplex type 2 infection

Intraperitoneal (i.p.) vaccination of mice with attenuated herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV 2) induced solid protection to i.p. infection with pathogenic virus within two days. Protection was non-virus-specific until day four after sensitization but increased in specificity thereafter. Normal mice could be protected by adoptively transferred spleen cells, serum, and peritoneal fluid from donors vaccinated seven days before. Virus-specific effector cells induced in the spleen by in vivo i.p. sensitization with either live, pathogenic, or attenuated virus and tested in a cytotoxicity assay were exclusively B lymphocytes. No functional B cells, but natural killer (NK) cells, could be detected in the unseparated peritoneal exudate cell (PEC) population. Ability to generate HSV 2 specific antibody responses did not correlate with natural resistance.